Need You Want You Hate You Love You
by Katsuko1978
Summary: They're total opposites, yet somehow drawn together through circumstance and choice. 28 short stories about the most unlikely couple to ever walk the Decepticon ranks. Updated 1 June 2012
1. Jealous

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I know that just about everyone in the fandom has tackled this meme at one time or another, so I decided to take my own stab at it. And to further challenge myself, I'm using my lifelong OTP as the stars of the show. These stories won't necessarily coincide, but that's part of the fun!

**Prompt:** Jealous

* * *

A low growl was trying to build in his vocalizer, but he bit it back viciously. It would never do to show any form of weakness in the presence of his fellow Decepticons; it would be especially troublesome to display _this_ particular emotion where anyone could see.

It had once been a foreign concept, this feeling, but over time had become something he struggled to keep from displaying. He absently wondered if Primus was taunting him, or perhaps testing his emotional control. That certainly seemed to be the case as _someone_ was always demanding _his_ attention. Be it Megatron or the aerial troops, Starscream always, always, _always_ had someone asking him a question or seeking his opinion or simply arguing with him.

And, quite frankly, it annoyed the pit out of Soundwave.

The spy forcibly bit back another snarl as Skywarp _finally_ walked away from the Air Commander, only to have Megatron call him over to discuss details of the latest energy raid gone wrong. Apparently he wasn't as successful a second time in remaining quiet, as a startled Blitzwing looked up abruptly from the console where he'd been writing his mission report. Soundwave ignored the triplechanger's stare and focused his hidden glare on Megatron.

Beloved leader or not, if the commander even laid a finger on Starscream, the spy was going to be hard-pressed not to shoot the mech.

It seemed like an eternity before the conversation/argument ended and the seeker stalked out of the control room in a fit of his usual pique. However, as he passed by Soundwave, an amused smirk curled his lips for a just a second before dissolving back into annoyance. The spy blinked at the thought that had crossed Starscream's processor just before his mental walls slammed back into place, making it clear that he had _wanted_ to be heard:

_It's cute when you're jealous, but __**do**__ something about it already._

Soundwave remained where he was for a moment before turning and exiting the control room himself.

Never let it be said that he didn't accept a challenge once it was issued.


	2. On His Knees

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This one got a little long and plotty on me. I half-expected to be writing something spicy for this particular prompt, but somehow it became somewhat fluffy. I have no idea.

**Prompt:** On His Knees

* * *

_That could have gone a lot better,_ Starscream thought dryly as he leaned on the wall of the repair bay, silently watching the Constructicons begin work on the more heavily-damaged soldier. _Then again, it could have been a __**lot**__ worse._

He had warned Megatron that attacking a power plant so close to the Autobots' base wasn't the best idea, but had conceded on the point that they were running far too low on energon to choose a target further out. The only suggestion he could offer was to have the Constructicons – and therefore Devastator – remain behind to ensure that they wouldn't be damaged when the Autobots realized what they were up to.

Amazingly, the commander had listened to his advice and ordered the combiner team to be on stand-by for repairs. It was a good thing he had, too, seeing as how they'd been thoroughly thrashed. Four of Starscream's seekers were currently in the repair bay with heavy injuries, the air commander himself putting off his own repairs to make sure that the others were seen to; Skywarp had only managed to escape little more than a few scratches and burns to his armour by teleporting out from under those blasted twins when he'd been targeted.

On the more positive side, they'd gathered enough energy to fuel the army for the next few months if they rationed it properly.

Satisfied that his seekers were being seen to properly, Starscream pushed himself off the wall and left the room. There were others still with worse injuries than he was carrying, and he could do the minor repairs to his frame in the meantime. The hallway was deserted, given that most of the soldiers were either awaiting repairs or had retreated to their quarters upon returning to base, and Megatron had likely contacted Shockwave by now to find out how much energon would need to be sent to Cybertron; it would be a relatively easy task for Starscream to limp to his own quarters without being seen.

He was in the hall leading to the officers' quarters when his legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor, catching himself before going face-first into the wall. A quick glance revealed that maybe he _should_ have remained in the repair bay; that cut on his leg hadn't seemed too deep before, but now it was leaking energon at a steady pace.

"Frag," the seeker complained quietly, attempting to stand but only making it as far as his knees before leaning heavily on the wall. There was no way he could go back now, yet it was going to be next to impossible to make it as far as his room without crawling... and even then he wasn't sure he'd be able to tend to the damage.

"Idiot."

Starscream tensed slightly at the distinctive voice, turning his head slightly to find that the hall wasn't as empty as he'd thought. Soundwave's face was as unreadable as always behind that slagging visor and mask of his, but the tone wasn't as empty as usual. It wasn't amusement he thought he heard, but there was still _some_ inflection.

"Query: what do you think you are doing?" the spy continued, his stance showing that he had no intention of leaving without an answer.

"Oh, nothing much," Starscream tried to drawl, although it just came out sounding drained. "Just sitting here, inspecting the hallway."

Soundwave huffed through his vents, obviously not buying it. "Damages: not minor. You should be in the repair bay."

"I'm fine," the seeker argued, ignoring the fact that he was still kneeling on the floor. "A few cuts and dings can wait."

The larger mech still wasn't buying the argument, which was made obvious a moment later as he crossed the brief distance between them and carefully hauled Starscream to his feet before picking him up and turning back towards the repair bay.

"Put me down," the seeker demanded weakly, optics flickering as his HUD began flashing a low-fuel warning. When Soundwave ignored his request he heaved a tired sigh and asked, "Why're you so stubborn?"

Later, he wouldn't be certain whether or not he had imagined the spy's response: "Because somebody has to look out for you."


	3. Well Shagged

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** Okay, so I merely _allude_ to smut having occurred in this chapter. I'm trying to hold out for an 'innocent'-sounding prompt to really hit the perv factor.

**Prompt:** Well-Shagged

* * *

Starscream showing up late for morning rations wasn't an unusual occurrence. There were so many times that he got caught up in a project of some sort – Megatron often found it easiest to let his second in command spend time in his lab when he started getting restless rather than 'infect' the rest of the seekers and multiply the annoyance level by six – that the mech only had enough time to snag a cube before reporting for duty. Since their awakening on Earth, such an event was so commonplace that most Decepticons were only surprised if Starscream was on time or even early.

The seeker being late for duty, however, was unusual and generally meant one of two things: either he'd _really_ gotten caught up in his work and lost track of the time, or he had spent the night – and part of the morning – with another mech. Only the aerial soldiers knew of the latter as an option, since many of them had at one point or another interfaced with their commanding officer, and thus were able to pick out the faint indicators that Starscream was never aware of showing.

So every last flyer in the Decepticon army was understandably confused when the air commander walked into the command center nearly two hours late, practically _vibrating_ with excess energy and wearing a tiny smile that none of the others on deck even noticed; it had been several weeks since the last time Starscream invited one of them to his berth and so far as they knew he'd been working on some refinement project that entire time.

Megatron barely reacted to the seeker's late arrival, merely quirking a brow ridge before asking, "Have you made any further progress?"

Starscream gave a brief nod. "Slowly, but we should see solid results within the next few cycles," he reported. "It took most of the night—" Skywarp only just managed to cover an amused snort with a cough "—but it appears that the calibration circuitry is finally working as expected."

"Excellent," Megatron said with a nod. "Go refuel if you haven't yet and make sure that Soundwave does likewise, then get a few hours' recharge before your scheduled patrol."

"As you command," the seeker replied, giving a brief salute before turning to exit the command center. He wasn't even out the door before all the seekers threw open their private comm channels.

_"Yo, did I hear Megatron say __**Soundwave**__ there?!"_

_"There's no slagging way!"_

_"They hate each other, and they're __**so**__ not compatible!"_

Thundercracker waited until the others had calmed down a little before chiming in with his own observation: _"Now that I think about it, our third in command missed morning rations as well."_

Megatron shook his head slightly as he noted that the seekers were no longer even pretending to work. It was probably a bad idea to turn a blind optic to the private affairs of his top two officers, but so long as they actually _did_ their work he would let it slide.


	4. Naive

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I actually finished this one up during a brief lull over my Christmas travels. I wasn't entirely pleased with the handwritten version, so I took a bit of time to polish it up during typing. I probably played a bit fast-and-loose with this particular prompt, but I'm pleased with the results.

**Prompt:** Naïve

* * *

There had once been a time, long ago, when he had truly believed that the Autobot senate worked for the best interests of all Cybertronians.

He had been young then, headstrong and idealistic to a fault, and wanted little more than to learn, to study the world around him, and to help make things a little bit better for everyone. His enthusiasm garnered the attentions of mechs in high places, paved his way into one of the most prestigious science academies in Iacon, and gained him a partner just as idealistic as he himself was.

It was only after tragedy struck – a single mishap that could have happened to even the most seasoned explorer given the conditions of the planet they had been surveying – that he learned just how little the senate, the science council, and the elitist Autobot regime truly cared about those from the lower end of society.

He had believed that the Autobot-lead council would send out a rescue team – he had hopes that his partner had survived somehow – only to be told that it would be a waste of resources to retrieve a corpse. He was blamed in full for the incident – the fact that they were both young and inexperienced disregarded entirely since they were both from the poorer regions of Vos – put on an enforced leave of absence in spite of his protests, and eventually dismissed entirely from his position. It was only due to the fact that he had worked for his degrees that they allowed him to retain his status and title as a scientist; too much pushing and it could potentially be regarded as racism against the seeker-builds.

The only mech who believed him, who listened to his pleas and put his own career on the line, who was also let go from his position on the science council, was the sole Decepticon representative.

Even after his dismissal, the older mech did his best to aid the younger, well aware of the fact that the wrong words or actions could cause further damage to the other's views. The pair was unable to launch their own rescue or retrieval efforts, yet still made the attempt to gather the funds to do so. It drew the attentions of both the scientific council, who summarily dismissed them as radicals and thereafter ignored their actions, and of a miner-turned-gladiator who had long been disillusioned as to the Autobot elites' true regard for the lower classes. The latter had been slowly gathering a following of rebels, and when the time was right he approached the two scientists to ask if they would offer their services to the cause; they didn't even need time to think it over before pledging their allegiance to Megatron.

There were many regrets in his life – losing a partner and friend twice over, being naïve enough to buy into the Autobot hype during his youth, arguing with the council at the high price of his career and reputation – yet Starscream never once regretted saying _yes_ when Soundwave had offered his assistance after his own dismissal. The seeker knew that if he'd answered in any other way, he would have missed out on gaining a devoted partner, friend, lover, and mate... and that was something he didn't ever want to be without.


	5. Naughty

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I had two initial thoughts for this one; the first was somewhat perverted, and the second was more along the lines of pranking. I decided once again to hold on for an innocent-sounding prompt and went with option number two. If you have a bit of trouble following what's going on, take some of the dialogue and reverse it completely. That's what I had to do while writing it XD

**Prompt:** Naughty

* * *

To be honest, Megatron expected random acts of insubordination from his second in command. It was almost a game at times, the seeker pushing until he found just where the line was and the gunformer gaining an opportunity to test the limits of his patience. Sometimes Starscream's antics were amusing; those times he merely had him confined to quarters for a brief span of time rather than have him thrown into the brig or put on punishment detail.

There were, however, times when his second took things to extremes, and those cases called for a heavier punishment. Those times had been much more prevalent in the span just after they awoke on Earth, as Starscream had gotten it into his processor that the whole ordeal was Megatron's fault and therefore he was no longer fit to lead, but over time he had fallen back into the usual pattern of annoying his commander through more creative means and Megatron had fallen back into his pattern of _not_ beating his top officer to the point of deactivation for treason.

This time, however, Megatron wasn't sure if he should be amused or annoyed. Especially since the seeker was peering back at him as if expecting a response to... whatever the slag he'd just said.

"Come again?" the silver mech asked, waiting to see if his second would drop the antics.

Starscream blinked. "Quarter-cycle past the in travel of lanes usual Autobots' the of any in activity reported no been there's, said I."

_Okay, so I wasn't imagining things._ Megatron took a moment to reverse the order of the words in his processor before frowning. "Why are you talking backwards?" he demanded after a moment, and was treated to the sight of that somewhat adorable look of indignation crossing Starscream's face, the one that made him look like a scolded sparkling.

"Backwards talking _not_ am I!" he insisted somewhat indignantly, arms crossed over his chest and optics narrowed. "Play to trying you are game of sort what?"

Megatron's own optics narrowed slightly and he glanced around to see if any of the soldiers on deck were listening in. The seekers were apparently immersed in their appointed tasks (even Skywarp, who was generally the first to jump in when there was a prank afoot), Runabout and Runamuck were quietly arguing over whose turn it was to use the console, and Soundwave was quietly overseeing the room. The spy turned slightly to look towards his commander, a silent indicator that he had been listening in.

"Soundwave, anything to report?" he asked, opting to ignore his second's antics for the moment.

"Negative," the spy replied. "Parameters normal indicate sensors all."

The gunformer couldn't help but stare. He expected things like this from Starscream and Skywarp, sometimes the entire aerial fleet if the air commander _really_ wanted to rile up his leader, but never from Soundwave. And yet his third in command was speaking in reverse just as easily as his second.

Starscream frowned and turned towards the spy. "Receptors audio his with wrong something be may there think I," he said in a low tone, apparently striving to keep the others from overhearing their discussion.

"Agreed," Soundwave replied. "Megatron. Receptors audio mainly, systems communication all on scan diagnostic full a run Hook have: suggestion."

The silver mech managed to translate the words and gave a brief nod. "That... may not be a bad idea. Starscream, you have the command deck until end of shift."

"Command you as," the seeker replied, optics slightly troubled. Megatron shook his head again (honestly, if this was one of Starscream's games then he had outdone himself this time) and exited the room. The moment the door slid shut and Megatron's footsteps had faded, Skywarp abruptly burst into laughter at his console. The rest of the seekers managed to maintain some dignity while the Battlechargers nearly fell over one another laughing.

"You're terrible, Screamer," Ramjet remarked, trying and failing to keep a grin from crossing his face.

The air commander smirked in amusement and looked at Soundwave. "How long do you think it'll be before he realizes that no one else is speaking in reverse?"

"Before the end of the cycle," the third in command replied. "Later if Rumble and Frenzy managed to talk the Constructicons into playing."

Starscream snickered quietly even as his seekers finally gave into their own mirth. Being a little naughty now and again was fun in its own right, but getting Soundwave to play too made it that much better.


	6. Obedient

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I know, it seems like such an _easy_ prompt to make sexual/sensual. And because it is, my mind just had to go the tamer route XD I honestly wonder why my mind works the way it does. On a side note, the next story prompt is a direct tie-in to one of the earlier shorts. I'm not saying any more than that.

**Prompt:** Obedient

* * *

Not for the first time, he mused that Megatron would be... highly displeased if he ever found out the truth.

It wasn't that the Decepticon army was adamantly against soldiers – even officers – engaging in physical relationships within the ranks, but simply that there were too many false rumours regarding fully-bonded pairs. Also, there was the fact that his mate couldn't seem to stay out of the line of fire either on or off the battlefield, showing no apparent sense of self-preservation every time he vocally disagreed with one of Megatron's plans.

There had been days, both on Earth and back on Cybertron, when he had seriously considered welding Starscream's mouth shut just to keep the mech from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And that had been before they'd taken the step from casual lovers to bondmates.

Since then, however, the seeker's random outbursts had become few and far between much to Soundwave's relief (and amusement on more than one occasion, when Megatron had paused to shoot down Starscream's protests only to have none forthcoming; the confused expression on his leader's faceplates never failed to make the spy laugh to himself) and he made an effort to keep from being shot. Since they _were_ at war, being shot at was an occupational hazard, but at least Starscream was trying to keep from getting hit on a regular basis.

He didn't know if all the rumours were true or not. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out if bondmates followed one another into death (he suspected that one could survive without the other; he wasn't sure if he would _want_ to live without his mate). He was curious to find out if they could communicate over a distance without the aid of comm links (it could come in handy should one of them be captured by the enemy). He already knew that he could feel it when his mate was hurting or injured (and if the pain from a laser blast was _that_ intense being filtered through a sparkbond, he shuddered to think of how it felt to Starscream himself when the blast hit), and he could tell when the seeker was content.

In all honesty, the thing that was likely to displease Megatron the most should he ever discover that his highest-ranking officers had taken one another as bondmates would be the fact that they'd sealed it with a vow "borrowed" from human bonding traditions (even if so many humans didn't actually stick to said vow):

_Love, honour, cherish, and obey._

It would grind Megatron's gears to learn that Starscream had it in him to be obedient yet still questioned him at almost every turn.

Soundwave chuckled to himself and pulled his recharging mate a little closer. To know that the willful seeker had already shown his willingness to follow the vow they'd made in keeping out of the line of fire as much as possible – a request made even before they'd bonded – made the spy feel as if he'd managed to one-up the world.


	7. Dominant MATURE

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** Mwahahahah. Yes, readers, this part of the story is, indeed, mech-smut. It's plug-n-play, but I'm _really_ hovering on the border with it in this one. Moreso than I did with "Undercover," in my opinion. This also rockets my rating up to M for at least this part. And for the record, this chapter ties in with "Well-Shagged" (basically, this occurs a few weeks _before_ that one takes place).

**Prompt:** Dominant

* * *

Two weeks into this particular project – a better way to refine the energy they gathered into suitable energon – and Starscream was getting thoroughly frustrated. The calibration circuitry kept frying astroseconds into each test run, and the energon it was producing wasn't fit enough to keep a minibot functional on lowest power consumption. The seeker swore violently and threw the panel he'd been working on across the room, barely missing Soundwave.

Most of the front-liners in the Decepticon army were under the impression that the second-and-third in command hated one another. It wasn't precisely the truth; Soundwave had a way of unnerving most mechs given his talents, and Starscream both feared and respected said talents. Also, the telepath was generally the only one around that he would credit with understanding what the slag he was saying whenever he got too involved in a scientific project. In truth, he'd rather work on a project this delicate with Soundwave than with the Constructicons any day; he'd let Hook or Scavenger work on his internal circuitry, but he'd sooner kidnap Wheeljack and let _him_ build a refinement chamber. At least then when it blew up no one would be surprised or overly-critical.

However, frustration and a familiar low-level ache in his circuitry were foremost in Starscream's thoughts. Two weeks with no valid results was enough to try every last ounce of his patience, and all he wanted right now was to drag one of his flyers off for a quick interface before collapsing into his berth until it was time for morning rations. Unfortunately, he had his own rule about not disturbing any berthmates before they were ready to online, and given how much this project was bothering him chances were good that he'd be up well before even a quarter-cycle had passed to go right back to work. He could ideally manage the collapsing into a berth part for at least a little while, if he ever got that fragging panel rewired.

Starscream pushed himself to his feet with the intention of stalking over to where the panel was now resting against the wall, but a firm grip on his arm stopped him before he was even halfway there. The seeker turned a questioning gaze to Soundwave, who was as unreadable as always behind his mask and visor.

"Leave it," the larger mech intoned, something in his voice sounding as if he were hovering on the edge of frustration and exhaustion as well. "Recommendation: recharge before resuming any work."

Starscream frowned slightly before giving a nod. "A few joors' rest sounds ideal," he agreed. A few joors of recharge would be more ideal after doing something about the ache in his circuits, but he'd discovered long ago that when an interface partner was absent he could force himself to ignore it with some measure of success. Something in seeker physiology made them literally _need_ to interface at times, although no one had yet to understand the reason for this cybernetic quirk. It was just an accepted fact that seekers were somewhat promiscuous, even though seekers themselves never actually flaunted their behaviour.

Granted, that nature was likely what prompted the air commander to extend the invitation in the first place: "If you'd like, you can stay in my quarters tonight. Your Cassettes are most likely in recharge by now."

Soundwave was silent for a moment, giving the seeker the impression that he was being closely studied, before offering a brief nod and stepping off to the side to let the slighter-built mech leave first. He fell into step behind Starscream, making no other move until after they'd arrived at the air commander's quarters. Soundwave waited until after the door had slid closed behind them and relocked before abruptly grabbing hold of the seeker's arm once more and pushing him against the wall, stepping forward to pin him in place.

Starscream felt his armour heat up further and the ache in his circuits intensify at the closer-than-expected contact and moved his arms instinctively to push the other mech away, only to have them grasped and pushed back down again.

"You do not realize just how loud your thoughts can be," Soundwave remarked almost conversationally even as he continued to invade the seeker's personal space. He wasn't completely familiar with seekers in general, but he'd been around the Decepticon seekers for so long now that their deeper, more instinct-driven thoughts were easy to pick out from the rest of their processes. Starscream may have believed that thoughts of interfacing had drifted into his mind once or twice in the past two weeks, but Soundwave had picked up on those subroutines demanding attention at least three times each cycle. He also knew _exactly_ what this particular seeker desired in his berthmates and – having been long-since driven to distraction by Starscream's subconscious signals – was more than willing to fulfill that role.

In spite of generally enjoying an argument with the air commander, Soundwave didn't give him the chance to protest; the moment Starscream opened his mouth to do just that the spy retracted his mask and silenced the yet-unspoken words with a kiss. It was obvious by how quickly the seeker surrendered that he'd pushed off any encounters for far longer than he was usually wont to do, and the knowledge that he finally had Starscream right where he'd wanted for some time now made Soundwave's systems nearly overheat.

He broke off the kiss abruptly, ignoring the faint whine of protest that worked its way from Starscream's vocalizer, and dragged the seeker over to the recharge berth. It took no more than a moment for Soundwave to push the other mech down and no more than a hand resting flat against his cockpit to convince him to stay down; the spy's free hand drifted to the paneling that covered his partner's interfacing connectors, carefully working the latches open and setting the panel aside before opening his own covering.

Starscream automatically reached down to run his fingers along the other's connectors, unable to hold back a confused sound when Soundwave grabbed hold of his wrist and forced it to lay flat on the berth. The larger mech hovered over him and growled softly, pressing hard on the trapped wrist for just a moment before releasing his grip; the seeker made no second attempt to touch his partner.

Satisfied for the moment that Starscream wasn't going to move, the spy turned his attention back to his previous task. A faint shudder wracked the seeker's frame as Soundwave ran one finger lightly across the other's receptor ports, three in all and apparently already sensitive to the touch. He glanced up again and sent a silent order – _lie still_ – before reaching for one of his own cords. The telepathic mech brushed the other two ports purposely as he made the first connection, smirking slightly at his partner's bitten-off whimper.

The other two connections were made in much the same manner, a faintly teasing caress accompanying the initial energy surge at the points of contact. With any other lover – and perhaps, in future encounters with this one – Soundwave would have opened his own ports for the other's cords. This time, though, he had something else entirely in mind. He pressed his full weight down on the seeker, nuzzling the wires on Starscream's neck even as he coaxed his partner's legs to wrap about his waist before sending the first strong pulse of energy through their connections.

Starscream's optics flickered and his head dropped back, mouth opening in a silent gasp of pleasure. His arms moved automatically to wrap around his lover's shoulders, clinging tightly as another pulse assaulted his systems. If his own cords had been linked up to Soundwave, he'd be returning the pulses as quickly as he was receiving them; however, the spy had taken the completely dominant role for this encounter, and Starscream was helpless to reciprocate in any way until he overloaded.

And he _loved it_.

Most of his previous lovers had expected _him_ to take the lead role in their interfacing; given a seeker's proclivities, it was considered proper to allow the seeker to control the encounter. Starscream had usually needed to cajole his partners into taking a fully dominant role, and even then he failed more often than he succeeded. But Soundwave—

Another strong pulse distracted him from his silent musings, accompanied by a sharp bite to his neck. Starscream bit his lip and wrapped himself even more tightly around Soundwave, burying his face against the telepath's shoulder in an attempt to muffle his cries. He could just barely register the larger mech whispering something to him, and tried to tune his audio receptors to catch the words. More energy pulses kept him from processing what was being said in full, but what he could catch sounded possessive.

Soundwave nuzzled his lover's helm, a faint grin crossing his lips as he sent a stronger energy pulse through their connections. His systems were rapidly overheating, steam beginning to rise from his armour, and he could tell that his seeker was on the verge of release. He pressed a kiss to one audio receptor, keeping his mouth there for a moment longer.

"I don't care how many lovers you've taken," he whispered harshly, "but you're mine now. You don't look at another, you don't _think_ of another. You only overload for _me_." The spy sent another sharp pulse to his seeker, not pausing before sending another, and another. "Break for me, my falling star."

The combination of the possessive words and the ceaseless energy pulses were too much, and Starscream's optics flashed white as he overloaded. The sudden snap finally caused a feedback loop, surging back through the interfacing connections into Soundwave and sending him over the edge only an instant later. The pair collapsed onto the berth, their fans working rapidly to cool their frames even as their vents cycled air just as quickly.

Starscream made a faint sound of protest as his lover moved to disconnect his cords. "Not yet," he murmured, tightening his legs around Soundwave's waist and nuzzling into his neck. "Please."

The spy hesitated only for a moment before nodding slightly, settling onto his side and pulling the seeker to rest fully against him. "As you wish," he replied as he brushed a kiss to his lover's helm. "Recharge now."

"Mmm. But only for a joor," Starscream replied sleepily.

Soundwave huffed slightly as he slipped towards recharge as well. "Four joors."

"Two."

"Two, and refuel before going back to work," the spy bargained, nuzzling his lover slightly.

"Mmm," the seeker agreed, automatically setting his internal clock to wake him at the agreed-upon time. Maybe if he asked nicely – or thought loudly – enough, they'd have time for another interface before that refuel.


	8. Happy

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This part is fairly short. It also features special guest stars Jazz, Skywarp, and Thundercracker. It turned out a bit fluffy again, so I apologize for that!

**Prompt:**Happy

* * *

It was a concept that had never occurred to any of the Autobots, but from his spot hidden behind a row of boulders, Jazz was a silent witness to a supposed impossibility.

Not too far from the Porsche's hiding place, a small group of Decepticons were settled around a small (in Cybertronian terms) bonfire. They didn't seem to have actually destroyed anything other than a few trees in order to actually _start_ the fire, and appeared to be more interested in sharing energon and talking than in causing trouble on this particular evening.

Closest to Jazz were Skywarp and Thundercracker. The two seekers were engaged in a quiet debate on some aspect of Earth culture – he hadn't exactly caught the conversation topic – the teleporter citing similarities to Cybertronian culture and his friend arguing that the differences were far too great. They weren't shouting, and the brief lulls in conversation seemed to be those comfortable silences that one didn't rush to end.

Across from them and directly in the Porsche's line of sight were Soundwave and Starscream. Like the seeker pair, the second-and-third in command of the Decepticon army were talking quietly with one another; unlike the other two, they were practically curled into one another. Soundwave had one arm wrapped securely around Starscream's waist, and the seeker had rested one hand on the telepath's leg. Their lulls in conversation were due mostly to exchanging brief kisses and taking turns drinking from the same energon cube.

What struck Jazz about the scene was just how content all four Decepticons were. It seemed that, for that brief moment in time, the war didn't exist and they were free to just enjoy one another's company.

Smiling to himself, the Porsche slipped away quietly and made his way back to base. Those four would be causing no problems tonight, and he had the sudden urge to spend a little bit of time with his closest friends.


	9. Dancing

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** Well, I have another special guest star today. Everyone say _hi_ to Mirage; he's going to be the pseudo-narrator for much of this section.

**Prompt: **Dancing

* * *

Most of the time he was able to tell himself that the Decepticons were _nothing_ like his fellow Autobots, and could slip into and out of their base with intelligence information and never ponder over what the consequences might be. Spying on the enemy was just a part of the war, and it was easiest when he didn't think of the 'cons as being Cybertronians as well.

And then there were the times that Mirage would stumble across behaviour that reminded him vividly of something that the twins or Ratchet or Prime or _somebody_ had done recently, and he couldn't make himself think of the Decepticons as anything _but_ just as deserving of fair treatment as any single Autobot back on the _Ark_.

This was one of those times, and the cloaked spy found himself absently wondering if it was just part of the job requirement for the second in command of an army to attempt to work himself into deactivation and for the third in command to make every attempt to keep said second in command from working himself into deactivation. Because, honestly, the exchange he was watching (and he was almost horrified to realize that he was amused by the proceedings) put him in mind of many an exchange between Prowl and Jazz.

Granted, Starscream wasn't up to his elbows in data pads, but crouched over a workbench and steadfastly attempting to ignore the mech behind him was just as bad. Soundwave had entered not long before and asked a few questions regarding... whatever the slag it was that the seeker was working so intently on. The back-and-forth exchange had been fairly brief and not-terribly informative – Mirage still recorded it on the off-chance that Perceptor or Skyfire could make sense of the technobabble – yet once the information was gathered the telepath hadn't left. Instead, he started hovering about the table and moving things around; Mirage had once watched Jazz do the same thing in Prowl's office, much to the annoyance of the Datsun, and it had ended with the saboteur being unceremoniously tossed out into the hall on his skid plate.

Starscream apparently had slightly more patience, as his reaction to the creative rearranging of his workspace was to set down the item he was working on and restore the previous order; unfortunately, this only seemed to inspire Soundwave to move something else once the seeker resumed his project. This went on for about half an hour before Starscream finally set aside his project and turned to fix a steady, unamused glower on his ally.

"What?" he asked, sounding almost petulant.

"You are working yourself too hard," Soundwave replied immediately. "Time spent today in the lab: twelve hours, fourteen minutes."

Starscream frowned slightly. "That has to be a miscalculation."

"Apologies: twelve hours, fourteen minutes, thirty seconds. Thirty-one. Thirty-two."

"You're hilarious."

The tone of the words – not to mention the words themselves – served to further remind the Autobot spy of his own faction's second-and-third in command, and he had to bite back a snort of laughter. If he shuttered his optics and ignored the voices themselves, he could almost see Prowl and Jazz having the exact same conversation/argument.

Soundwave's next comment caught Mirage by surprise: "Suggestion: take a break. Spend a few hours with your mate before the cycle is over."

Mirage blinked. None of the intelligence gathered over the course of the war – by him or by anyone else in Special Ops – had given _any_ indication that there were bonded pairs in the Decepticon army; if it had been known that one of Megatron's top three officers had a mate, it would have been exploited ages ago.

Starscream turned so his back was to the workbench, leaning on his elbows and giving the telepath a mildly amused look. "I don't know, Soundwave. He's a pretty busy mech himself. He's probably off somewhere right now trying to make sure our workaholic second in command hasn't managed to put himself into stasis yet."

_Yeah, I didn't see __**that**__ one coming,_ Mirage thought to himself once he got over his initial shock. Decepticon bondmates was startling enough; learning that the two mechs closest to Megatron in the ranks were bonded to one another would probably be enough to crash _Jazz's_ logic circuits. It was information that was both potentially relevant to the war effort and possibly the best gossip that could ever hit the _Ark_.

"Then he would probably appreciate the break. Keeping that seeker from working too hard is a difficult task," Soundwave returned, a faint hint of amusement colouring the monotonous voice that the Autobot spy was more familiar with. The seeker grinned and pushed himself away from the workbench, crossing the short distance between himself and the other mech.

"Hello, mate," he greeted as if he'd just met up with Soundwave somewhere. "Care to take a short break with me?"

The telepath actually laughed quietly at that, wrapping his arms around the seeker's waist. "Long break," he corrected. "Everyone has noted that you skipped evening rations. Skywarp is convinced you welded the door to the lab shut accidentally."

"Skywarp is strange even by seeker standards," Starscream retorted, his own arms winding about the telepath's neck. "_But_, if I really have been in here for that long, it probably is time to put it all up till tomorrow."

Soundwave made a sound somewhere between agreement and contentment, nuzzling his mate's neck lightly. The seeker chuckled at the reply and began humming a tune that sounded vaguely familiar to the still-cloaked Autobot. It took Mirage a moment to note that the pair was swaying slightly, as if they were dancing to the song Starscream was humming.

The Autobot spy made his way to the slightly open door, glancing back only once to see that the couple was still entwined, Starscream humming and Soundwave singing softly as they danced. Deciding abruptly to himself that everything he'd seen after the Q&A session was irrelevant to his mission, Mirage slipped out of the room and headed for the lift room. He'd slip out with the next seeker patrol shift and return home.

And maybe spend a little time worrying over if he was really becoming the Decepticon sympathizer Cliffjumper had accused him of being.


	10. Angsty

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** While all the rest of the shorts thus far have been set in the G1 universe or some variation of said 'verse, this one is set in the AU 2007-verse I'm slowly building in "The Family You Choose." That being said, consider this story to contain spoilers for events that will occur later in that story line. When I started that story, I wasn't planning to have any real pairings, but eventually I realized I was trying to find a way to get these two together.

For those who haven't read TFYC yet, all you really need to know is that Starscream is an Autobot and Soundwave is still a Decepticon.

**Prompt: **Angsty

* * *

So this was how his life was going to end: betrayed by his own faction in the most brutal of ways.

Soundwave struggled to cycle air through his vents, mentally wincing at the horrific grinding coming from them. Only a few short orns ago, he was in a position of power; Megatron had appointed him as second in command of his army in the earliest days of the conflict, and upon leaving Cybertron in pursuit of the All Spark had left the Decepticons in his hands. Radio contact had been lost once the Lord Protector was out of range, and in the following vorns Soundwave had worked hard to keep control of their strongholds.

As far as he'd known, the only dissenter to his command had been Shockwave, the immediate third in command and head of the science division. _That_ had aggravated the blue-toned mech at first, but he realized that his duties as second left far too little time for his own scientific endeavours and ignored his colleague's actions. What limited time he had away from his duties was spent in the company of his creations, the only beings he held in any regard aside from his supreme commander.

Only now did Soundwave realize that he should have paid at least some attention to what the mad scientist was plotting; he had had several doubts about just how loyal to Megatron Shockwave truly was, and he knew deep in his spark that the mono-opticed mech had no intentions of locating Lord Megatron. The only goal _he_ had was to obtain the All Spark for himself, and to rule the whole of Cybertron.

It was the seekers who had caused the bulk of lethal damage to the former-second. That slagging Sunstorm had always been troublesome, from the very astrosecond they'd placed his young spark into the adult protoform he now carried, barely able to keep his dangerous talents locked away until needed. It had only taken a few promises from Shockwave of a means to contain the radiation to gain that seeker's loyalty; once he had the wing leader, the rest of the trine had fallen into place. Thundercracker as the eldest apparently had the deep-seated need to protect his younger wing mates, and Skywarp was a born follower.

And with those dangerous talents in his grasp, Shockwave had ordered the trine to take out his only rival: Soundwave.

He knew that his systems were failing, yet he couldn't bring himself to care. Worse than being attacked with lethal force by his own faction was what the purple mech had done next. One by one, Soundwave had felt the connection with each of his creations snap, as Shockwave forced each of the compact mechs into drone casings and bonded every one of them to other soldiers. First Ravage – his eldest and dearest creation – then Frenzy, Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak. He didn't know what Rumble's fate had been, but he couldn't feel the creator-bond to him any longer, and feared that his youngest had rejoined the All Spark wherever it now lie.

Soundwave forced more air through his vents, watching his HUD light up with systems alerts. His chances of survival without medical attention were astronomically low, and the reality of his imminent deactivation was growing closer with every passing breem. There was not even one Decepticon that would come to his aid now; Shockwave had guaranteed that with threats against any that _would_ lift a finger to help, and the one common factor all Decepticons shared was the need to keep themselves online.

Silently mourning his lost creations and offering apologies to Megatron – wherever he was now – for his failure, Soundwave stopped forcing air through his vents and resigned himself to his fate.

The silence that had fallen once his damaged vents ceased functioning was broken by the sound of distant engines that were drawing closer, one much faster than the others. _Seeker engine_ flitted through his processor and for a brief moment, he believed that one of the trine – possibly Thundercracker? – had decided to come back to make sure he was deactivated. The blue seeker had a small measure of compassion, perhaps he would make it quick if it was him...

His optics flickered slightly in confusion as he heard the seeker land and watched his pedes walk into view. First of all, the Decepticon seekers never really walked if they were on the ground; they moved in a hopping gait and tended to abuse their antigrav thrusters. This seeker walked with ease, and his pedes were subtly different, still possessing the distinctive four-split that allowed seekers to perch but with a wider base area for improved movement on the ground. The armour he could see was silver in colour, a shade that none of the trine carried on their frames.

"Looks like Raj's intel was spot on," someone said, the tone holding a faint whining pitch but still sounding self-assured. It came from just above him, so Soundwave assumed that it was the mystery seeker. He couldn't figure out who _Raj_ might be; there was an Autobot with the designation _Mirage_, so perhaps that was who this seeker meant.

But... that would mean this seeker was an Autobot. And there was only one Autobot seeker: the sparkling that had gone missing from Altihex and who had been raised – through all stages of development – by the medic Ratchet.

"Keep an optic out for anyone coming back around, Siders," the seeker said again, apparently in response to one of his 'brothers' that he was rarely seen away from. The mech crouched on the ground and carefully shifted Soundwave's frame, rolling him onto his back and relieving some of the pressure from his injuries.

_His optics are red,_ Soundwave mused deep in his processor, looking past the warnings in his vision to note that portions of the seeker's armour were red as well. A Decepticon by birth and an Autobot by circumstance and choice; such an odd creature this was.

"I'm going to have to put you into emergency stasis," the seeker said quietly, hands moving with confident precision to tactilely catalog the other mech's wounds for later repair. "You wouldn't survive the journey otherwise."

"Who...?" Soundwave forced himself to ask, flinching at how rough his voice sounded. Even if the Autobot medics managed to repair his fragged vocalizer, he would never sound the same.

The seeker paused for a moment, blinking his warm optics in surprise. He offered a faint smile and reached for the switch that would throw the Decepticon into stasis until repairs were made as he replied:

"My designation is Starscream."

The name and that faint smile followed Soundwave into the darkness and gave him something fragile to hold onto.

Hope.


	11. Bath Time

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I really had to work with this one a bit, as I couldn't decide _what_ I wanted to do with the prompt. Sweet? Cute? Pervy? Eventually I decided on something between the first two options, and wound up creating another alternate G1-verse. For this one, just think of it as if the war never happened because the senate was willing to listen to the people's grievances and work towards solutions benefiting the whole of Cybertronian society. Other changes will become obvious from the first sentence.

**Prompt:** Bath Time

* * *

It was amazing to Soundwave just how much rampant destruction could be caused by two sparklings in the span of a few dozen breems, especially when either he or his bondmate was watching them the entire time; no matter how quickly they managed to catch one of the scraplets, the other would have squirmed away and managed to rain down a bit of chaos in another part of their flat.

Today it was Rumble, finger-painting on the living room wall with the sparkling-grade energon he'd managed to knock over in the three astroseconds that it had taken for Soundwave's attention to be diverted by Frenzy's latest attempt to scale a bookshelf. For some odd reason, their youngest sparkling had gotten it into his processor that because one of his creators was a seeker he could fly, and was forever trying to get high enough to test his theory. And while they'd discussed upgrading the twins with boost thrusters when they got a little older, for the time being they were ground-bound mechs, and Soundwave could almost swear his fuel pump stalled every time he caught sight of the tiny blue frame halfway up the bookshelves or heading for the edge of a table at full-tilt.

He'd had time to snatch up Frenzy before he took a leap once again, but Rumble's damage had already been done.

And then when he went to collect the red sparkling, his twin took off towards the lab. The sound of crashing bottles and high-pitched squeaking told the blue mech _exactly_ how far Frenzy had gotten; thankfully Starscream had moved anything truly dangerous to his lab at the science academy, and since he was working from home today chances were good that he'd keep Frenzy from taking off again.

Sure enough, no more than a breem later the seeker walked into the living room with a faintly-glowing sparkling tucked under one arm. He stopped short as he caught sight of the artwork on the wall and the energon-covered sparkling his mate was holding.

"Well, he's improving," Starscream drawled casually as both sparklings burst into giggles and began attempting to escape from their creators. The adults adjusted their hold on the twins and exchanged mildly exasperated looks. "Remind me again why we wanted more?"

"Because Ravage was deceptively well-behaved at this age," the other mech replied dryly. Their eldest sparkling continued to be well-behaved, although some of his tutors had made complaints about his inability to pay attention during lessons. Soundwave was starting to wonder if the Ravage had inherited his telepathic talents, which could prove distracting from time to time.

Starscream huffed air through his vents, once again tightening his hold on a squirming Frenzy. "Yeah, that would do it," he mused before turning his attention to his sparkling. "Guess what time it is."

Frenzy blinked at his creator and chirred questioningly. _"Bath?"_ he trilled after a moment of thought; across the room, Rumble's optics widened and he renewed his struggles to escape from Soundwave's secure grip.

"Bath," the seeker confirmed, grinning slightly as the blue sparkling chirred happily. For reasons neither mech could comprehend, Frenzy absolutely _loved_ bath time. His twin, on the other hand, hated getting anywhere near the wash racks and would flee in terror any time the word 'bath' was mentioned. The only way they could ever get the scraplet cleaned up was to bathe him at the same time as his twin, and that was only after they caught him.

_"Noooooo,"_ Rumble wailed as he squirmed, attempting to pry Soundwave's grip on him loose with his tiny fingers. Soundwave heaved a sigh and shot a pleading look at his mate. Starscream took pity on the mech and set Frenzy down on the floor, trusting that the sparkling would head straight for the wash racks as he usually did when 'promised' a bath, before reaching to pluck the red twin from Soundwave's arms.

_"No bath,"_ the sparkling pouted as he crossed his arms in a huff (and causing Soundwave to once again muse that the twins _had_ to have gotten their mercurial personalities from Starscream). The seeker ignored the demand and followed his mate and youngest sparkling to the wash room.

Unsurprisingly, Frenzy was already chirping impatiently as his creators went about filling the wash basins and ensuring that the temperature wasn't too hot for sparklings' more delicate plating. Starscream maintained his hold on Rumble, who had resumed his squirming and was sounding distressed squalls in time with his twin's vocalizations. It never ceased to amaze Soundwave of just how good his mate was with the little ones, considering that he had been the youngest of three; of course, Flamewar had set a good example for her younger brothers whenever she was left in charge, and Starscream tended to emulate it in raising his own family. (Skywarp, however, was the exact opposite. The only hope that any of his future sparklings wouldn't starve or spontaneously offline during their first few orns lie firmly in Arcee's hands.)

Soundwave shook off the thought absently and turned to pick up Frenzy, whose impatient chirps shifted to happy trills almost immediately. He placed the squirming sparkling into one of the basins, dropping his visor into place as the small blue mech immediately started splashing cleaning fluid at him. Soundwave smiled warmly at his creation's actions and allowed Frenzy a few breems to play before he'd have to see about getting whatever compound the sparkling had knocked onto himself cleaned off.

Rumble had finally stopped whimpering, but he was now attempting to glare a hole into Starscream's head; having been almost exactly like the red sparkling personality-wise as a youngling, the seeker simply gazed back as he plopped the little mech into the other basin. Keeping one hand firmly on Rumble's scruff bar, he picked up one of the sponges and began lightly scrubbing off the spilled energon. As usually happened in these cases, the sparkling slowly relaxed and began chirring quietly at his creators, still not terribly happy with being 'forced' into a wash basin but trusting them to see to his cleaning.

"How'd he manage to knock over an entire cube?" Starscream asked, glancing at his mate out of the corner of his optic and smiling slightly at the mess Frenzy was making.

"Short answer: Frenzy," Soundwave replied as he caught hold of said sparkling's arm to run a cleaning cloth over it. "Longer explanation: we may need to install someone's boost thrusters sooner rather than later."

The seeker sighed and shook his head as he reached for the solvent, handing it to Soundwave before scooping a bit of the cleaning fluid into a cupped hand. "As much as I want to wait until he's older, someone is going to drive us into early deactivation if we hold off much longer," he said, dropping the liquid over Rumble's head to finish rinsing away the last bit of energon from the sparkling's frame.

Soundwave made a quiet sound of agreement, glad to see that the solvent was cutting through whatever it was that was making Frenzy glow. He'd have to find out exactly what had been in that bottle; if they could just paint a little onto each of the twins, they'd be able to track them down easier when the pair decided to climb out of their berths and run about the flat in the middle of the night cycle.

A peaceful silence fell over them, broken every so often by a sparkling's laughter or the sound of splashed cleaning fluid.


	12. Caring

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I'm starting to think I'm going to have about twenty different 'verses spawned by the time I finish with the meme XD This particular one is sort of an alternate offshoot of G1 at some point in time. All I'm certain on is that the events of TF:TM never had the chance to occur here.

**Prompt:** Caring

* * *

It wasn't easy to see, really. Decepticon culture was vastly different from that of the Autobots; even the peace that had finally been reached between the two factions had nearly come to blows from the way Megatron had worded the request (although, to be fair, _you will listen to our demands or else_ was a pretty bizarre means of asking for a meeting on neutral territory). It was only Optimus Prime's willingness to at least hear what the Decepticon commander had to say and Prowl's terse command that no one fire unless fired upon first that kept anything untoward from occurring.

Granted, the fact that the hard-sought-for peace had come about because Megatron was tired of watching his army practically starve to death wasn't anything to celebrate.

Even now, several months after the fact, Ratchet wasn't entirely pleased with the amount of energon the former enemy forces were consuming. It was far too little considering how big some of the Decepticons were, although most of the seekers and the smaller mechs like the Reflector gestalt and the Cassetticons were relatively healthy in comparison to the rest; his working theory for the seekers' general health was tied heavily into the fact that Starscream was by far the smallest and had more than likely divvied out part of his own rations to his squadron, and that the Cassetticons had possibly been given shares of Soundwave's stores.

And it was apparent that the rumours of the second-and-third despising one another had been greatly exaggerated. No more than twenty minutes after the Decepticon army began moving into the uninhabited areas of the _Ark_, the pair had gotten into a very loud row regarding space requirements. The mere fact that they were arguing over just how much room _they_ would need ("Especially if we have three idiots popping in at all hours, and I'm including Skywarp in that count so don't even slagging _start_ that argument again!" had been amongst Starscream's retaliations) was enough to start the Autobot gossips prying for information, and their Decepticon counterparts were more than happy to confirm that the air commander and communications officer had been involved in a long-term affair since before they crashed on Earth. The rumours had been started by Megatron, it turned out, in order to keep the pair from becoming a liability.

"They're both stupid enough to have attempted a one-mech rescue mission should the other fall into enemy hands," he'd commented dryly. "It was best to try and keep the scenario from occurring."

But that was in the (all-be-it recent) past, and the issue at hand was getting the Decepticons back to proper fueling levels. It would probably be some time still, considering how long they'd been going with so little, yet that didn't mean Ratchet had to be happy about it, especially since he was getting fed up with the odd couple showing up in his repair bay every few days because of just that issue.

Soundwave was gradually getting to consumption levels that the medic was satisfied with, but Starscream didn't appear to be having as much good fortune. His systems had apparently gotten used to operating on a minimal amount of energon, and it was taking much longer for them to acclimate to an increased amount. Any time that the seeker didn't seem inclined to ingest more, Soundwave dragged him to the repair bay and demanded that Ratchet or First Aid or Hook – the Constructicons had set up shop in one corner of the bay and tried to stay out of the way as much as possible – do a full systems scan. Every time, the scans came back exactly as Ratchet had expected and he explained yet again that it would probably be a long-term process.

Honestly, the only one more annoyed with the frequent visits than the CMO was Starscream himself.

So it didn't surprise Ratchet when the door slid open and he caught sight of the pair out of the corner of his optic. He continued with what he'd been working on, smirking slightly to himself as he listened to the usual growled complaints about over-reacting morons who should divert some of that attention to their creations if they wanted to 'mother' someone half to death and the monotonous insistence that half a cube of energon in a twenty-four hour cycle was grounds to drag a half-clocked glitch to the infirmary.

It had taken a while, but Ratchet was learning that it was simply the Decepticon way to show they cared for each other through their actions rather than their words. And when he finally looked over to spot the couple – still arguing heatedly – with their fingers entwined and exasperated affection on their faceplates, it simply confirmed once again how devoted to one another they were.

The medic finished up his current task and turned his attention to his guests.


	13. Horny MATURE

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I would hope that, judging from the prompt on this chapter, you'd expect to find that this chapter is another M-rated one. If you think that's the case, you are one hundred percent correct. I wasn't even about to _try_ taming this one down. It's plug-n-play once again (I have a great fondness for it) with a bit of spark-merging thrown in as well.

This chapter takes place in the same universe as "Obedient," meaning that Wave and Screamer are bonded and only a handful of 'cons are in the know.

**Prompt:** Horny

* * *

"Stop that. It is distracting."

Starscream looked up from the datapad he'd been studying, blinking at his bondmate in confusion. It was rare for them to be off-duty at the same time that _wasn't_ during the recharge cycle, and thus they had retreated to the abandoned section of the undersea base to avoid any prying optics. The only Decepticons aside from themselves who knew of their relationship were the Cassetticons, and they were currently either on missions or – in Rumble and Frenzy's case – causing enough trouble that no one even noticed that their second-and-third were conspicuously absent.

"Reading is distracting?" the seeker remarked, quirking a brow ridge as he adjusted to a more comfortable position. They'd settled themselves into what had originally been an additional lounge, stretching out together on one of the oversized berths. He wasn't sure what Soundwave was looking over, but he had decided to read through some of his old research notes to see if there was anything there that might be of use in the future.

"No," the spy replied, voice holding a faint hint of amusement. "_That_ is distracting," he added as the seeker shifted once again. The slighter mech's frame settled more snuggly across his own, and he subspaced his own datapad to wrap a possessive arm around Starscream's waist.

The seeker stared at his bondmate for a moment before subspacing his notes and readjusting himself so that his elbows rested on Soundwave's chestplate, propping his chin on his hands and smirking slightly. "Who are you and what have you done with my Soundwave?" he teased.

"Observation: Starscream and Soundwave spending far too little time _awake_ in a berth," the blue mech noted in a manner that could almost be called conversational, if it weren't for the fact that his free hand was now running lightly over the spot where his mate's wings connected to his back.

"My, we're blunt today," Starscream replied, moving just enough to allow his legs to tangle with Soundwave's. He moved his hands to rest on his mate's shoulders and leaned in to nuzzle him, a purring note sounding from his vocalizer. "So, you want to spend some time in a berth _not sleeping?_"

Soundwave retracted his mask and nipped at one of the seeker's neck cables, answering the purr with a low rumbling growl. "We _are_ off-duty until tomorrow," he said as he dug his fingers slightly into the seams of Starscream's wing-armour, smirking at the bitten-off moan the action drew. To be honest, he hadn't been paying attention to anything but his mate for the past hour or so, and the combination of watching the unconsciously graceful shifting as well as feeling their armour slide together with each motion was almost innocently erotic to the spy. As a result, all he really wanted to do right now was see if he could make the seeker live up to his designation once again.

"One-track processor," Starscream accused, his own hands running across the other's torso. One hand slipped into the indentation between tape tray and armour, fingertips running lightly over hidden wiring as the other hand traced Cybertronian glyphs on the sensitive glass. He was well aware that when his mate got into these sort of moods, the best course of action was to hold on, enjoy the ride, and make sure that Soundwave didn't do _all_ the work. True, the seeker enjoyed playing the submissive, but that was no reason to _not_ touch and tease his lover. It was more fun when they both participated, after all.

The spy groaned softly, loosening his hold on his mate just long enough to slide open their interface panels. One arm slid around Starscream's shoulders to pull him into a firm kiss even as Soundwave's free hand moved to ghost over his mate's exposed ports. The seeker whimpered into the kiss, hands digging into armour and legs shifting to straddle the other mech as his frame shuddered slightly. Soundwave replied with a purring note, lightly petting his mate's wing as he carefully slid his cords into place. The spy slid both arms around the other's waist before sending the first short pulse through their connection.

A sharp gasp escaped Starscream's vocalizer and he pressed closer to his mate, one hand clutching a shoulder as the other dug lightly at Soundwave's chest plate. Knowing what the other wanted, the larger mech sent another sharp energy pulse to his mate even as he slid his chest panel open to reveal his spark. The seeker opened up his own paneling before settling fully against the other, moaning low in his vocalizer as their sparks merged. The doubled connection created a full circuit between the pair, Soundwave receiving feedback from the energy pulses he sent to Starscream almost instantaneously. The seeker's vocalizations increased from quiet mewling to high-pitched keening as his mate sent sharper pulses through their interface connectors, clinging tightly to him and burying his face against his neck.

The combination of electric pulses and spark merge finally proved more than Starscream could handle, screams barely muffled against armour as his overload crashed down on him. The feedback through the double connection pushed Soundwave to his limits as well, and the larger mech pulled his mate tighter against him as he rode out his own release. Cooling fans cycling rapidly, the couple relaxed into the berth, exchanging brief kisses and caressing still-heated armour.

"We need to share time off more often," Starscream murmured, resting his head on his mate's shoulder and basking in the satisfaction that he felt singing through their bond. Soundwave laughed softly and resumed stroking the seeker's wings, enjoying the contented drowsiness he sensed from the other.

They really _should_ have such quiet moments more often.


	14. Turned On MATURE

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Warning:** mech-on-mech sexual situations of the sticky variety. Yes, Katsuko has given up her sticky!pornginity.

**Notes:** Well, like the warning says, this is actual sticky fic. Not "plug-n-play bordering sticky," but full-on sticky. I entirely blame the TF2007fun Anonymous Kink meme, particularly a seeker prompt that specifically requested sticky or spark-sex. When I saw the prompt, the OTP bunny went _rabid_ and churned this out in the course of two days.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this part. And really, the mature rating is _so_ earned this time around!

**Prompt:** Turned-On

* * *

"Okay, this is weird behaviour even for Starscream," Brawl griped, still trying to extract himself from the wall.

Only moments before, the Combaticon had been involved in some good-natured ribbing with the rest of his gestalt when the air commander walked into the mess hall. Since most of the other seekers were currently off-base for reasons known only to Megatron and his second, Brawl had decided to take the opportunity to engage in most of the Decepticons' favourite past-time: taunting said second in command.

Usually, such comments were met with shrill demands to mute it or – if Starscream was in what passed for a good mood where the mercurial seeker was concerned – witty comebacks that would be repeated by the more outspoken 'cons for the next few days. Today, however, Starscream had seemed oddly content to ignore the tank, prompting Brawl to grab hold of the seeker when he passed the gestalt on his way back out the door. Apparently that was the big mistake of the day, as Starscream's response to this was an enraged snarl and practically tearing Brawl's arm off before tossing him halfway through the wall.

In the aftermath, none of the 'cons present had wanted to chase down the seeker as he stalked from the room, still snarling; the rest of the Combaticons finally pulled themselves from their shocked state and moved to aid their gestalt mate.

"This is hardly the first time in the past few days that Screamer's overreacted to something," Scrapper pointed out, watching the Combaticons with some measure of amusement. "A little over half a dozen mechs have been through the repair bay since the rest of the seekers went out on assignment, and all of 'em were rather embarrassed to admit that it was our dear air commander who fragged 'em up."

"If I hadn't just seen it, I wouldn't believe it," Rumble said with a shake of his head. "Starscream's more the shoot 'em in the back or build something to blow 'em up type."

"Seekers just ain't _programmed_ for hand-to-hand combat," Frenzy agreed. "But I'm gonna say right now that I'm steering clear of him until whatever the slag is messed up in his processor works itself out!" Several voices were raised in agreement, but one mech watched the door where the seeker had disappeared speculatively.

The other Decepticons may have been wary of this new violently-hapnophobic Starscream, but Soundwave found himself... oddly intrigued.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Starscream growled to himself, a tiny portion of his processor amused at how quickly mechs were moving out of his way as he stormed through the halls. He would be the first to admit that he had a short temper, but usually he could tone down his more violent urges through waspish words or pulling rank on the offender. Unfortunately, he was a seeker through and through, and that came with programming quirks that most other Cybertronians never had to worry about.

Such as a heat cycle that tended to make him more inclined to give into his initial reactions towards those who slighted him and less willing than usual to socialize with his fellow Decepticons. And to make things even more interesting, a vast majority of the seekers under Megatron's command were unmated, just as affected by the exact programming quirks that Starscream was currently exhibiting, and due to close proximity tended to set off one another's cycles nearly in unison. Megatron had somehow found out about said programming quirks – how, none of the seekers knew, and so long as the commander left them alone during their heat cycles they really didn't care to know – and made it his own private policy to find some reason to be _well_ away from any areas his aerial fleet may be frequenting when the cycles rolled around; currently he was on Cybertron for an extended meeting with Shockwave and not due back until the end of the week.

The good thing about being the air commander and second in command was that he could – and did – order all the unmated seekers off-base until their heat cycles passed or they were properly mated. Those seekers with mates – his own trine mates numbering amongst the few that were paired off – had been given the option of going on leave or remaining behind to cover for the absent seekers.

The fact that there were even a small number of mated seekers was astonishing, given that as a whole they were not very sociable beings. Sure, they engaged in interfacing with other mechs and femmes – more than a couple even enjoyed interfacing with multiple partners at once – but no self-respecting seeker initially liked the idea of being tied to another. Seeker programming dictated that during the heat cycle, an unmated seeker fight hard in order to maintain that status. The few mated pairs that existed within the army were a result of either the couple choosing to bond outside of their heat cycles – a somewhat rare but not unheard-of occurrence – or the dominant seeker overcoming his programming and fighting just as hard _to_ claim his mate during their cycles. Only after obtaining a mate did the programming glitch correct itself, generally with an initial period of extreme displays of affection followed by a calming of the seeker's overall personality. There was a reason, after all, why both Starscream's trine mates were less inclined to extremes in behaviour, and it had everything to do with Thundercracker deciding _to the smelter with my programming_ during one heat cycle nearly two thousand years before the crash landing on Earth.

Starscream had managed to make it several million years without being claimed; the one time it had come close to happening had been back when he was still a young exploration scientist and had been rather smitten with his partner. Thankfully for him, Skyfire had been clueless as to his infatuation and when the heat cycle hit the shuttle had been quick to give the seeker space.

Starscream felt a new growl building in his vocalizer as he stepped into his labs and discovered that he had an uninvited guest. "State your business and get out, slagger."

His snarling didn't seem to bother Soundwave; then again, it was impossible to tell what was going through the third in command's processor with his face hidden by both battle mask and visor. "Observation: Starscream's behaviour erratic over past four days. Current eccentricity is damaging to morale."

"Well, boo-fragging-hoo," the seeker sneered, optics darkening as his every instinct screamed at him to remove the threat from his haven; somewhere in his processor he recalled that his gaze had lingered on the communications officer more than once, and any other time he _might_ be interested in attempting to seduce Soundwave. Current circumstances curtailed that desire, however, and he glared at his ally. "If they kept out of my way I wouldn't have to keep sending them to the Constructicons. If that's _all_ you wanted, the door's right there."

If anything, the telepath seemed to steel himself to remain in his current spot by Starscream's workbench, visor glinting slightly as his full attention locked on the air commander. As usual, he found it extremely difficult to access the seeker's thought patterns due to how quickly his processor performed; he felt that this was likely a side effect of Starscream being one of the faster flyers that Cybertron had ever produced. Still, he could occasionally pick up on a surface thought or two if he focused his full attention on the other mech, and the fact that he couldn't get past the haze of anger that was clouding the seeker's mind more than usual proved to be just as intriguing as the hapnophobia.

"Negative," Soundwave replied, finding himself smirking behind his mask; the rage reflected in the other's optics was somewhat arousing, and he wondered how much effort it would take to turn _that_ fire into something a little less violent but just as physical. "Starscream: currently causing more damage to Decepticon forces than one hard battle with Autobots. Recommendation: find another means of dealing with frustrations."

"Most mechs wouldn't volunteer to play at being someone's punching bag," Starscream hissed, entire frame tensing for a fight. The fact that Soundwave just _wasn't going away_ was starting to tweak at his instability, and the seeker knew that if the other remained for too much longer that this was going to dissolve into a physical confrontation. On one hand he really didn't _want_ to send yet another mech to the repair bay, but on the other he _really_ wanted to beat the scrap out of someone right about now. And if Soundwave was volunteering, he would take him up on the offer if he didn't withdraw it quickly.

The communications officer took a few steps away from the workbench, deliberately moving into Starscream's current comfort zone. His optics flared slightly behind his visor as the seeker's mind fairly lit up with silent fury. "I was not suggesting that you start another fight," he replied, smirking as the light in his comrade's optics darkened further. It was apparent that Starscream had read between the lines, and just as obvious that he wasn't pleased by the suggestion.

Which was just as well; Soundwave rather enjoyed a challenge, and this was one conquest that would be well worth the trouble.

The first blow nearly caught him by surprise, and likely would have sent him crashing to the ground had Starscream not growled furiously before throwing the punch. Even so, the seeker was a lot stronger than he looked, built for up-close physical combat or not; the force of the fist crashing into Soundwave's masked face was enough to knock him off-balance and caused him to stumble back several steps. Remembering how easily Starscream had tossed Brawl around the mess hall several hours before, the telepath braced himself and grabbed hold of the seeker's wrist on the next strike. The air commander's continued growl deepened, the rage in his optics deepening as rather than try to pull free he used Soundwave's grasp to pivot himself into position to kick violently at the larger Decepticon's midsection.

Soundwave let out a muffled grunt as the seeker's foot connected, nearly losing his grip on his opponent before tightening the servos in his hand. The plating collapsed slightly beneath his fingers yet Starscream appeared not to notice; instead he went for another kick and wrenched his arm out of its socket in an attempt to pull free. The telepath yanked hard on the limb he was holding, causing the seeker to stumble and enabling him to pull the slighter form against his chassis. This drew a shriek of rage from Starscream and a hard struggle to break away from the arm now pinning him securely against the larger mech.

Soundwave allowed himself a private smile, oddly pleased to find that the seeker didn't immediately cave when pinned against him. He mused that it was probably a _good_ thing that Starscream didn't engage in grounded, hand-to-hand combat; if he fought like this all the time, chances were damned good that Soundwave would have jumped him and 'faced him into the ground right in the midst of a battle ages ago. Tightening his one-armed hold, he reached down to unlatch the panel that covered the seeker's interfacing hardware; the response was a rumbling growl and a renewed struggle on Starscream's part. There was the faintest note of arousal to the tone of the growl, however, and Soundwave felt it safe to let his guard down a bit as he experimentally pressed his fingers against the seeker's receptor port.

That proved to be a mistake, as Starscream let out a snarl and executed a reverse head-butt that left the third in command seeing stars for a moment. He loosened his hold, the seeker using the opportunity to wrench himself free and whirl about to continue their previous fight. Soundwave realized in that moment that no matter how receptive the seeker may be – and there was a definite tinge of desire mingled with the anger dancing on the surface of Starscream's thoughts now – there was no way that he would submit quietly.

And that fact ratcheted Soundwave's arousal up another ten degrees.

Soundwave didn't give Starscream the chance to start throwing punches again; when the seeker shifted his frame to attack, the telepath lunged forward and caught his opponent around the waist, sending them both crashing to the floor. Once they were down, Soundwave used his bulk to pin the smaller mech while quickly unlatching his own interface panel. In other circumstances, he'd take a few moments to engage in a little port-play, stimulating the internal sensors with fingers or glossa; however, in his all-too-brief exploration the spy had found Starscream's port already slick with coolant. There was no hesitation in his actions as he pulled the seeker's thighs open and thrust into him.

A howl escaped the air commander's vocalizer, the earlier rage absent as his port flexed around Soundwave's spike. The telepath gave him no time to find that anger again, immediately setting a harsh pace that left the seeker scrambling to cling to his lover. White legs that had only a short time before been delivering furious kicks wrapped themselves securely around Soundwave's waist, and Starscream rolled his hips up to meet each heavy thrust, moans and squeaks of pleasure slipping past his lips.

Soundwave dropped one hand to rest possessively on the seeker's small waist, the other moving to scratch and stroke the broad expanse of one white wing. Starscream hissed in approval, arching his neck to bite and nuzzle at the other's face. The communications officer obliged with the non-verbalized request, retracting his mask and capturing the seeker's mouth in a searing kiss as he sped up his thrusts. Overload was hovering tantalizingly out of reach, and the fierce yet somehow fragile being moving in time with him was setting every one of his sensor panels on fire.

Starscream's arms weaved themselves around his shoulders, the seeker pulling himself impossibly closer to the telepath. The light sweep of a glossa across his neck cabling was just enough to push Soundwave to the brink, and with a growl and a final hard thrust into that sleek body he fell into overload, energy crackling through his systems and into Starscream along with a rush of transfluid. An almost musical scream sounded from the seeker at almost the same instant, fingers digging into blue plating and entire frame shuddering from the force of his own release.

Soundwave moved slowly, careful not to simply drop his full weight on top of the now-limp air commander still pinned beneath him. Starscream's cooling fans were cycling madly as he shifted slightly, a muffled groan slipping past his lips as his port reflexively tightened around the spike still buried inside him. Soundwave hissed slightly, wrapping an arm securely around the seeker and rolling them onto their sides, reluctant to break the connection now that it had been achieved. As Starscream lazily nuzzled him, a sound akin to a purr rumbling in his throat, Soundwave couldn't bite back a smile at the stray thought that crossed his own mind:

_**Definitely**__ worth the trouble._

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The next day saw the return of Starscream's trine, which many of the Decepticons on base felt was the reason that the air commander's inexplicable rage had ceased. Since they had been avoiding the seeker in question, it was a valid theory. The only source of confusion was as to why the two elites had blinked at their fellow 'cons curiously and exchanged calculating looks before wandering off in search of their wing leader.

Soundwave had been both amused and confused to find that he'd somehow acquired a seeker-shaped shadow. Starscream had most definitely _not_ been opposed to another couple of rounds, and the telepath had regrettably expected that to be the end of the affair. So having the air commander not only watching him with a definite gleam of appreciation in his optics but also taking opportunities to slip up and steal a kiss or two in the few times they were alone in any part of the base was pleasant yet unexpected. A part of him felt that he could get used to such surprises from the seeker, but he suspected that it was merely an extended afterglow and that Starscream would eventually drift back to his usual behaviour where Soundwave was concerned – either outright disdain or subtle snubbing.

It was only when the other two members of the elite trine walked into the control room where Soundwave and Starscream were currently on-shift that he started to second-guess his own thought process. Particularly when Skywarp stopped talking in the middle of what was gearing up to be a drawn-out story, blinked his optics questioningly, and looked from one commanding officer to the other speculatively. Thundercracker had been quietly observing everything, and a faint amused smile had gradually painted itself across his faceplate.

Finally, just as Soundwave was considering excusing himself from the room just to get away from the oddness that was more than one seeker in a small area, Skywarp snickered and turned an admiring look back to Starscream. "Slag, Screamer, but you don't do anything halfway, do you?"

_That_ comment killed any thoughts of leaving the room, as did the tiny grin the lit across Starscream's face. "It's not like I was _asking_ to be jumped. I sent six idiots to the repair bay in the past four days for torquing me off."

"And we all know how short a seeker's temper can get during a heat cycle," Thundercracker remarked, seeming unsurprised by the number of mechs his trine leader had fought with in a relatively short period of time. "But Warp's got a point; you don't do things by halves."

Curiosity got the better of him, and Soundwave made a quick attempt to try to get into the air commander's processor. Rather than the challenge it had always been before, this time he was surprised to find that he'd slipped into Starscream's thought patterns with the same ease he could pick up any other mech's mind. The answer to the unspoken questions that had abruptly arisen with Skywarp's offhand comment was close to the surface, and only the presence of his mask and visor kept his shock at the discovery hidden from the still-gossiping seekers.

After a moment, his shock was replaced by amusement and the telepath felt the tension slip out of his frame. There were worst fates than finding out that by 'facing a seeker in heat you had essentially claimed him as a mate, and if Soundwave had his way that somewhat tentative bond would be reinforced by a sparkbonding sooner rather than later.

He didn't think he'd have _any_ trouble talking Starscream into it.


	15. Exhausted

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Warning:** mechpreg and sparkbirth. It's actually rather clean, but I figured a warning was valid.

**Notes:** First off, the units of time as I'm using them are:  
1 orn = 13 days, one breem = 10 minutes, 1 joor = 6 hours

As for this particular section, at first I was going to go superbly angsty on this one - as in, character death of just about everyone appearing in the story angsty - but then I had the oddest dream involving a good deal of what made the final version. For the record, this takes place in the same universe as "Obedient" and "Horny," occurring chronologically later than those particular stories. And yep, I used a canonical name for the bitlet :p

**Prompt:** Exhausted

* * *

While they hadn't actually intended to create sparklings together – considering that Soundwave had split-spark created six before the war ever started and Starscream had never shown any interest in anything of the like so long as the war was going on – when they discovered the tiny newspark developing alongside the seeker's one evening the thought of terminating it never even crossed their processors. In fact, upon the discovery they began to quietly make plans for the sparkling's separation, as well as trying to decide just when, exactly, to reveal that they were bondmates to the other Decepticons.

Eventually, they had two plans in place that would cover everything they needed to say. Plan A consisted of privately informing Megatron the orn before separation would occur and arranging a trip back to Cybertron, allowing the sparkling to online on their home world. Since Soundwave was of the opinion that Megatron at least suspected and approved in his own way – mainly because Starscream didn't talk back nearly as much due to his bonding vows – it was likely that the request would be granted. If they played things right, perhaps they could be reassigned to the planetary guard until the sparkling was older then return to Earth if the war was still going.

Plan B would go into effect if Megatron wouldn't consent to a private meeting; in that case, they would call an all-personnel meeting, announce the news there, and either make arrangements to return to Cybertron or have the Constructicons on stand-by for when the sparkling decided it was time to separate from its bearer's spark energies. It wasn't an elegant plan in the least, but Starscream felt it was the more likely outcome with how thinly-spread Decepticon resources were; he'd also said something about an honour code amongst seekers that would more likely than not result in a vast majority of the aerial fleet motherhenning him half to deactivation up until spark separation.

In either case, the bondmates knew that they didn't want just any prefabricated protoform shell for their sparkling, and whenever one or the other was off-duty (Starscream had somehow managed to get himself assigned to monitor duty for the next dozen orns _without_ torquing Megatron off) he spent at least half a joor working on a custom protoform designed to develop identifying features and colouration once the newspark was placed in the spark chamber. When it was finally completed, they stored it safely in Starscream's subspace.

Which was a good thing, because they didn't have a Plan C, and if they had it certainly wouldn't have been for Starscream to abruptly drop from the sky during a battle with the Autobots almost a full three orns before they anticipated spark separation to occur.

The seeker started swearing viciously as he dropped to his knees, wincing at the uncomfortable pressure on his spark. He'd been taking a great deal of care to avoid any laser fire, mindful of the newspark he was carrying, and a sudden twist of pain in his spark chamber had been enough to throw his total concentration. Every instinct had shrieked at him to get on the ground, and he simply cut his thrusters to get there as fast as possible. A small part of his processor was amazed that he still managed to avoid being shot in the process; the rest was concerned with the fact that he was very likely going into first stage spark separation too early for his comfort and he had no access to any sedatives to dull the pain.

In all his and Soundwave's planning, the one thing they were _positive_ about was that the seeker was either going to be mildly sedated and online during the process – his scientific side was fascinated by the prospect of recording the event to his memory files and sharing them with the sparkling when it was older – or put offline and rebooted once the newspark was separated. There were medics who proclaimed that the natural, un-sedated process was the best way to go, but right now Starscream was having serious doubts that any of those so-called experts had ever gone through with it themselves. He was in _pain_, and he was _amazingly_ torqued at the world, and if his bondmate didn't move his skid plate over here _right now_ he was going to tear out his interfacing hardware with his _teeth_.

Another twist of pain made itself known, and he whimpered faintly as he braced his hands on the ground. First stage spark separation was fair warning that the bearer had to get to a medical facility quickly; depending on the creators' programming protocols the shift into second stage could take from as little as two breems to as long as ten joors. Once in second stage spark separation, the newspark would either detach from the bearer's spark energies on its own or be removed surgically and then it would be placed into the protoform shell. And since they had two very different sets of protocols, Starscream had no way of knowing if this would be a quick and painful process or a slow and extremely painful one.

The sensation of panic and worry flared to life across the bond, and Starscream managed to send back reassurance and a little bit of the pain he was going through. If he had to suffer, Soundwave wasn't getting off the hook. There was an immediate response of love, reassurance, and urgency, and he had the distinct feeling that his mate was going to immediately inform Megatron of the situation. The sound of metallic footfalls drew his attention outward again, and the seeker lifted his head to spot the Autobot medic. It seemed that his bondmate wasn't the only one to notice his rapid descent, and a quick scan revealed that the only other mechs nearby were his rapidly approaching trine mates.

Ratchet's initial long-range medical scans, which he'd performed almost instinctively when he spotted the seeker dropping like a stone, had barely been enough to reveal that the mech was carrying, and upon his approach he could intuit that first stage separation had already started. What he needed to know now was how quickly the seeker was progressing into second stage. Granted, he wasn't positive on how receptive the Decepticon would be to his assistance, but he had delivered more than a few sparklings before the war and was counting on Starscream's developing creator instincts to act in his favour.

Starscream kept one sensor attuned to his trine mates – oddly enough, Skywarp's signature had just flitted out, a sure indication that he'd teleported, and it had yet to reappear – and both optics locked on the Autobot. "Don't come any closer," he hissed out, one hand dropping over his cockpit as another stab of pain shot through his systems. For all he knew, the 'bot was planning to force him offline and steal his sparkling, and the only way _that_ was happening was over his deactivated frame.

Ratchet held both hands up in a supplicating gesture. "Take it easy," he said, pitching his vocalizer to the more soothing pitch he tended to use for his worst-injured and least-trusting patients. "You may not want to admit it, but you need help right now. Let me do my job, factions disregarded."

Starscream winced again, optics narrowing in consideration. Engineers and programmers they might be, but the Constructicons had a similar stance when it came to wounded prisoners: anyone in need of medical attention would receive it, regardless of what insignia they sported. If the Autobot medic was being sincere, it would make this whole ordeal a little easier to handle. Thundercracker had vanished from his sensors, but through the gestalt-like trine bond he shared with the mech he knew that his wing mate was close by; chances were that the older seeker had picked up the medic's energy reading and scrambled his own. Skywarp's presence made itself known over the trine bond, and he could feel a rush of worry, anger, and protectiveness wash over him from Soundwave.

He relaxed slightly, replying to his bondmate with calm and relief, before turning his full attention back to the Autobot. "No tricks," he said, the threat apparent in his tone. If the slagging Autobot even attempted to go back on his word, there were likely three weapons locked onto him that _would_ be fired immediately.

"No tricks," Ratchet repeated, aware that at the very least Starscream's trine was close by (as a medic he had to be aware of any and all types of bonds that could exist between mechs, and even if it was somewhat dysfunctional the three elite seekers _did_ seem to look out for one another) and his own allies had likely noticed his absence by now. Shoving aside the thought, he cautiously approached the kneeling seeker and crouched beside him, immediately running a scan to check on the status of both his patients. Starscream's pain receptors were reading at high levels, his energy levels were dropping, and the newspark was coming in strong and clear.

Knowing that those readings meant only one thing, the medic frowned slightly and asked almost rhetorically, "I don't suppose you're carrying a sparkling protoform with you?" To his surprise the seeker glowered at him and reached into his subspace, pulling out a custom-made frame that had obviously been laboured over. Managing to school his reaction, Ratchet carefully set the small protoform on the ground beside him and rested a hand lightly on the seeker's arm. "I don't have anything to offer for the pain, unfortunately, but I need you to open up your spark chamber now; you're shifting into second stage quickly and you're probably going to feel a whole lot worse before this is over."

"I am going to _kill_ him," Starscream growled, optics shuttering briefly at another sharp stab of pain that was only mildly assuaged by the thrum of affection coming from his mate. Even as he spoke he retracted his cockpit and slid open the paneling that covered his spark chamber. The medic felt a brief flash of pity toward whatever mech had assisted in the newspark's creation – he had heard many such threats in the past, along with vows to remove vital hardware and tear off limbs, from bearers going into second stage separation – and reached into his own subspace for the tools he would need.

As fast as Starscream had gone from stage one to stage two, Ratchet hadn't needed to worry about locating a laser scalpel; apparently the newspark had decided it was ready to greet the world and was already beginning to self-detach almost before its bearer had finished opening his spark chamber. The medic was still quick to scoop up the small purple-tinted spark (and he hadn't really been expecting to find that Starscream possessed a pale bluish-white spark) with a transfer-forceps to keep it from being damaged in the short span of time it would be exposed to the elements. He did a quick scan on the seeker's systems even as he moved to carefully place the newspark into the protoform's spark chamber.

As if it already knew this was its home, the newspark almost instantly 'clicked' into place and prompted the spark chamber to close. Untested systems began humming immediately and the dull metallic grey of the shell slowly brightened; it would be at least half a joor before the sparkling's colouration fully integrated, but from Ratchet's initial scans it appeared that the little mech would online with no difficulties.

The medic briefly considered running as he picked up the sparkling, only to quickly disregard the idea. Not only would he be breaking his word to the seeker, but he would probably find himself shot down by Starscream's trine before he even got a few dozen meters away. Instead of following that ill-fated instinct, Ratchet handed the sparkling to the barely-online seeker. As the other mech instinctively adjusted his hold on his creation, the medic noted a pair of small nubs on the sparkling's back. The little mech would likely either wind up a flyer of some sort or possess sensor panels much like the Datsuns, depending upon who the other creator was.

"Congratulations," he said, taking a moment to scan the seeker one final time and noting that his energy levels were dropping rapidly towards recharge-state. "Integration should be complete within the joor. In other circumstances I'd insist on you and the mechling reporting to a med center immediately, but I probably wouldn't be far off in assuming that someone is coming for you now."

A faint smirk flitted across the seeker's weary face as a low monotone from behind them intoned, "Assumption: correct. Autobot designation Ratchet: services no longer required."

"In other words, get lost 'fore we decide to shoot you anyways," Skywarp translated, grinning brightly at the expression on the medbot's faceplate. When he'd been called back by Megatron while rushing to his fallen trine mate, the black seeker had been frustrated and nearly snarled at his commanding officer upon complying. However, the news that Megatron had quickly relayed to him – that at some point the second-and-third in command of the army had seen fit to _sparkbond_ with one another and that Starscream was carrying a newspark – had at first left him gaping before a sense of giddy delight crept over him.

The trine, even if they occasionally treated one another horribly, had been together for a very long time, and the idea of playing uncle to a brand new winglet was intoxicating. He had been fully willing of teleporting both himself and Soundwave to his trine mate's coordinates, and it had been gratifying to pass the news along to Thundercracker; it had been megacycles since he'd seen that gobsmacked expression cross the other seeker's faceplates and it was just as funny as ever.

Ratchet took in the situation – two armed seekers, one of whom was pointing a laser rifle at him with a dark look in his optics, the third in command of the Decepticon army who was shifting the focus of his attention between Ratchet and the pair of mechs still on the ground, and a very amused seeker that was close to dropping into recharge holding a tiny integrating sparkling – and nodded sharply. Keeping his attention locked on the weapon pointed towards him, the medic walked past the three Decepticons and headed back towards the _Ark_. There would be questions about his whereabouts, and he wouldn't withhold that information from Prime.

He would, however, include a footnote that attempting to 'retrieve' the sparkling would likely result in deactivation at either the hands of angry trine mates or an enraged bondmate.

Behind him, the three 'cons moved quickly to Starscream's side, Soundwave carefully helping him to his feet. The exhausted seeker leaned heavily against his mate, optics shuttering and venting a tired sigh.

"So how much trouble _are_ we in, anyway?" he asked wearily, not bothering to unshutter his optics at the faint snort of laughter from his younger trine mate.

"Megatron: more annoyed that Soundwave did not keep Starscream out of battle while carrying," Soundwave replied, a thrum of amusement and adoration coming across their bond. He chuckled softly at the exasperated affection he received in reply. "Current orders: return to base. Starscream: ordered to repair bay to recharge under observation."

"Mm," Starscream replied, leaning his helm against Soundwave's shoulder. "Take Sonar, okay? If I drop into recharge, I don't want to drop him."

"Come on, Screamer," Thundercracker said softly, looping an arm carefully around his trine mate's waist and supporting him as the spy shifted his hold to the newly-designated Sonar. "Let's get you home."


	16. Playing with Kids

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes: **Yet another mini-verse has been created within the meme, this time a pre-war universe with a slight twist. The term 'winglet' belongs to KDZeal, while the convoluted-and-co opted seeker-cant elements come from Sanjuno Shori Niko.

**Prompt:** Playing With Kids

* * *

There were some new sparklings at the care center that morning, not that he paid them much attention. His creator was a serious-processored mech yet a highly-opinionated one. And his creator tended to discuss his opinions where his only sparkling could hear them clearly.

So when he noticed that the three newcomers possessed wings and were dropped off by a trio of flyers as well, he tuned out their presence almost entirely.

_Seekers are flighty, arrogant, and conceited,_ his creator had said regarding the tetra-jet frame types, and Soundwave didn't see any reason to not believe his creator's words. But he was a sparkling, and therefore he was naturally curious about the world around him. So although he wasn't _really_ paying much attention to what the three were up to, he still kept a few sensors trained on them just like he did to all the others in the care center.

The cobalt sparkling didn't associate much with others, ever contented to entertain himself with the glyph-blocks and story datapads rather than join his age-mates in their noisy games. And although a few of the sparklings in the care center had tried at least once to draw him out of the corner for more than just snack and nap times, they only tried it once before leaving him to his own devices.

So when one of the winglets made his way from the main cluster of sparklings – all engaged in some game that involved copying the actions of an appointed leader and cheering whenever one failed to copy exactly – and dropped to the floor beside him, Soundwave expected the same routine to play out as it had a dozen times before. When several astroseconds slipped by without a word from the newcomer, the confused sparkling looked up from his datapad to find red optics watching him curiously.

"Query: what do you want?" Soundwave asked. The winglet blinked and gave a questioning chirp, most likely startled by the monotone quality of the other's voice. The blue sparkling knew his manner of speaking troubled others, but he knew no other way; his creator said that it was best for those possessing telepathic skill to hide their emotions, and although he was still learning to keep his face blank he already spoke with no inflection. Just as Soundwave was starting to think he might need to dumb down the question – _seekers aren't terribly bright,_ his creator had also remarked – the white and red winglet's optics brightened.

"To get to know you," the small seeker replied; his voice contained a faint whining pitch to it that wasn't entirely unpleasant, and his pride at having correctly worked out what 'query' meant was apparent. "Why do you wear this?" he added almost immediately, following his own question with a tap of one finger directly in the center of the larger sparkling's semi-transparent red visor.

Soundwave didn't know what was more startling, the fact that the winglet was actually trying to strike up a conversation with him or that he had had the audacity to touch him for even a second. Other sparklings avoided him after a token attempt at friendliness without attempting to break his comfort zone, but this (_flighty, arrogant, conceited_) seeker sparkling didn't seem to realize that he'd broken an unspoken rule: don't disturb Soundwave's privacy.

He blinked back at the winglet, who was still crouched next to him and waiting patiently for an answer. The real answer – to learn to school his facial expressions first then work on keeping his emotions out of his optics – would probably cause the other to ask more questions, so the blue sparkling answered with the same response he'd given the care workers when they asked: "Optics sensitive to light. Visor: necessary to block out excess wavelengths."

"Oh," the winglet said. "Okay. Wanna play blocks?"

Soundwave was staring again, shifting his attention from the odd seeker sparkling to the larger group of sparklings involved in yet another game. The noise level was around the usual – too much for Soundwave's budding abilities to filter out as yet – and the other two seekerlings seemed to be enjoying it just as much as the others. The cobalt sparkling turned his full attention back to the white and red winglet next to him.

"Why do you not join the others?"

"They're too loud," was the reply, accompanied by a slight sneer and a faint hum that Soundwave's sensors were barely able to pick up. Surprisingly, the two winglets still playing – a blue and white and a black and purple – paused in their play and looked over at the corner. A burst of white noise accompanied hums from those two, and the seekerling at his side seemed to reply with a twitch of his wings and low turbine rev; the dark winglet grinned and went immediately back to his games while the blue one watched for another moment with a faint frown before following his friend.

The cobalt sparkling blinked twice. "Inquiry: what was that just now?" he found himself asking before he even realized he was speaking.

"That's how seekers talk to each other," the red and white sparkling replied matter-of-factly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Granted, it probably _was_ completely natural to him. "We don't use Standard most of the time."

"Then why bother with speaking it," Soundwave asked curiously, although his tone remained as bland as ever, "if you can communicate through other means?"

"Then we'd never be able to talk to other people." The winglet paused before adding, "So, wanna play blocks?"

It was at that moment that one of the care workers _finally_ noticed what was going on in the corner and approached quickly. "Starscream, sweetspark, come with me. Soundwave doesn't like others to bother him."

"Negative," Soundwave interrupted, managing to keep his face blank but glowering at the femme from behind his visor. "Starscream's presence: tolerable."

The care worker stared for a moment, and the blue sparkling couldn't blame her; it was probably the first time _ever_ that he had expressed that another mechling in the care center was being anything but a nuisance so far as he was concerned. It was likely because the winglet – no, his designation was Starscream, it was proper to use it – hadn't tried to drag him off into one of the games other sparklings enjoyed and simply sought to join in doing something _he_ found enjoyable.

"All right, then," the care worker said after a moment, flashing a brief smile. "Nap time is in another ten breems."

"Yes, ma'am," Starscream replied, smiling sweetly while she was facing them but poking his glossa out at her back once she'd turned to walk away. Soundwave gave a faint laugh, the sound oddly harmonic in comparison to his speaking voice and drawing a snicker from the winglet.

"Did you still wish to play?" the larger sparkling asked after a moment. The response was a brilliant smile from his new (and only, to be honest) friend and an eager nod.

Vorns later, after Soundwave had long since broken ties with his creator over differences of opinion (_what you see as arrogance is merely their custom_ were the final words he'd ever spoken to the mech) and found himself involved in a small rebellion against the status quo, he was given a simple task by his leader. _Find me a flyer,_ were Megatron's exact words.

Behind the mask and visor he wore to hide his face – he never had mastered the art of remaining expressionless – the mech found himself grinning. He knew just the seeker for the job. And with any luck, Starscream would still be with his younglinghood trine mates as well.

The only problem would be convincing the security mechs at the scientific academy to let him through the front gates.

* * *

**End Note:** That slight twist I mentioned at the beginning? This particular 'verse the war still happens, but Screamer doesn't wind up being the arrogant SIC/air commander we know and love/hate. He never left the scientific academy, and wound up being primarily a scientist under Megatron's command as well as part of the aerial fleet; one of his trine mates became air commander and SIC instead.


	17. Exploring

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This part is set in the same AU established in "Playing with Kids." Basics to remember are, the war occurred but Starscream remained a scientist while Thundercracker went on to become the SIC and air commander; Soundwave and the trine met while they were still sparklings and a firm friendship has been long-established between Soundwave and Starscream.

Also, a friend from LJ (writer223) was inspired by this 'verse and has also been writing in it; one of her ideas for sparklinghood behaviour on Skywarp's part makes a cameo appearance herein, and it just fits him so well that I'm including it as this universe's canon.

**Prompt:** Exploring

* * *

"How do you always manage to talk us into these things?" Thundercracker groused, leaning against a cliff and giving his youngest trine mate a hard look. Starscream merely gazed back, his own optics alight with amusement and the contentment he always seemed to have when in his element.

"Because you're my trine and you love me," the white seeker replied blithely before turning back to the rock face he'd been examining for the past three breems. The flecks he'd spotted while on an earlier patrol had a similar appearance to gold, but the readings he'd taken proved them to be something else entirely, and the entire region seemed to be ripe with the mineral.

"Explanation: unsatisfactory. It does not explain how you always manage to talk _me_ into these things."

Starscream snickered and shot a playful look over his shoulder. "Because you're my best friend and practically trine and you love me, too."

Soundwave scowled in response although the corner of his dermaplate twitched slightly into a grin. He rarely wore his mask when it was just himself and the elite trine; they'd known one another since they were sparklings, having met in the care center where their creators left them while at work, and as such were well aware of each other's idiosyncrasies. Granted, the telepath still thought Skywarp was a bit odd, but at least now he teleported from place to place instead of hopping around like he had when they were still small.

Almost as if the idle thought had summoned him, the purple and black seeker appeared behind Starscream and pounced the other mech. Ignoring the smaller seeker's startled yelp, Skywarp grinned and reported, "Hey, Screamer, there's a whole _wall_ of this stuff on the other side of the valley!"

The scientist almost immediately ceased his grumblings about half-clocked trine mates who couldn't stay still if their functions depended on it. "Really?" he asked, optics brightening in that manner his friends had learned long ago meant that he was calculating a theory.

"Yep! And there're a few boulders that are kinda weird, too," the black seeker added. "They're kinda blue and grey and shimmery."

Thundercracker and Soundwave exchanged a long-suffering look that was softened by the faint smiles on their dermaplates. Skywarp had unknowingly just given Starscream a reason to stick around the valley for another two or three joors, and the blue mechs knew that they would remain as well even if they acted unwilling to do so.

After all, the scientist's enthusiasm for discovery was just one of the many things they both loved about him.


	18. Greedy

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This section is... somewhat inspired by the TF Mosaic "Megatron's Reflection" on dA (transformers-mosaic . deviantart . com / art / Megatron-s-Reflection-110390322 - be sure to remove the spaces). I am utterly in love with that piece, and somehow thinking on it helped me get this prompt written.

**Prompt:** Greedy

**

* * *

**  
It would have been incredibly simple to garner _everything_ he desired by using his talents – after all, he was the real power behind the Decepticon army and his puppet ruler played his role well even without the command overrides he'd implanted. It was wise to keep Megatron around, a buffer between himself and any who would challenge for leadership, and allow himself to remain safely in the background as an observer... and the "loyal" third in command, of course.

Yet over time, he had spotted a new prize, one that would bring an end to an ages-old problem that Megatron dealt with in precisely the wrong manner.

Starscream had been brought into the army by Soundwave himself – not selected merely because he was a flyer, as Megatron had been led to believe long ago, but due to his analytical mind – and was controlled through his fear... for a while, anyway. He'd never been entirely sure what happened between the aerospace commander and his puppet ruler, but the fearful respect had gradually changed to outright disdain and treasonous activity, culminating eons later with the seeker's near-deactivation at Megatron's hands.

During the seeker's lengthy stasis period, Soundwave took the opportunity to delve into his unguarded processor to search for answers. The results were surprising – apparently during the period of time when he'd been more lenient with control over his puppet, Megatron had had a brief affair with Starscream that ended rather abruptly. A "walk" through his puppet's thoughts revealed the whole of the story: Starscream had wanted to be seen as more than a casual interface partner, and Megatron had shoved – and continued to shove – the seeker away in an effort to keep him from finding out the truth regarding the hierarchy.

Intrigued, the telepath placed a minor override code into the seeker's processor that would allow him continued access once Starscream was online once again. And when he slipped back into the role of loyal second – with a healthy dose of fear keeping him from overstepping boundaries for a time – Soundwave was able to read the mech's thoughts with ease.

He was further intrigued to discovery that Starscream's displays of treason weren't designed to overthrow Megatron, but simply to garner his undivided attention. The seeker wasn't concerned with leadership or power, save for how it could be used to benefit himself. The analytical mind that had so captivated Soundwave eons before was focused on a basic protocol that many of their people had long forgotten or ignored: the desire to find a fitting mate. For the somewhat delicately-built seekers – and in comparison to most of his framekin Starscream was positively tiny – that meant a mech who would be capable of protecting said seeker as well as any creations, and the former scientist had set his sights on the Decepticon commander.

At first, the discovery had merely served to amuse Soundwave – all the deceit and hassle caused by the seeker were the results of a mere lover's spat that had extended over centuries. Soon, however, the telepath began to think on how he himself could benefit. If he allowed Megatron free reign, it was likely that his puppet would eventually destroy the seeker merely to keep him from finding out the truth. Such an outcome would be undesirable, as it would cost Soundwave a valuable resource that simply needed to be redirected.

Slipping past Starscream's mental barriers a few more times, he soon realized that he was _furious_ that his puppet had garnered the other mech's attention. The seeker wanted a powerful mate, one capable of protecting him even as the war waged ever onward, and to share – not usurp – that power. The want for offspring lingered in the hidden recesses of his processor, creations that he had once hoped Megatron would spark and that he was slowly losing hope of ever coming into being.

Even as Soundwave burned with rage, he thought over how his own desires meshed with Starscream's. He had creations of his own, all of whom had aided in his plans of conquest. Even Rumble and Frenzy, his eldest creations, had informed him of the miner-turned-gladiator that had become his puppet; they hadn't exactly been spark-broken when "ordered" to reformat from vehicular modes and reveled in the renewed connection with their creator. Ratbat, however, had overstepped his boundaries and needed to be punished suitably, although after reformatting and time with his disappointed creator the mech had been apologetic and eager to do his creator's bidding once again.

The idea of more creations, which would undoubtedly be intelligent given the seeker's cunning mind, was intriguing. And given that the mech was quite capable when given a little bit of leeway in regards to leading a division – their aerospace fleet was nigh unstoppable under the seeker's command – Soundwave made a decision and acted upon it.

He moved slowly at first by granting Starscream small shows of favour, requesting his input on plans that were supposedly to be presented to Megatron and listening silently when the seeker raged against his puppet. Once he'd established a mild rapport with his target, Soundwave began to show more overt signs of his intentions: casual touches, sharing energon from his private stores, showing a genuine interest in the seeker's projects.

Starscream had responded favourably, his thoughts gradually shifting from Megatron as mate-material to Soundwave as a potential mate. The telepath knew that he could simply _push_ the seeker, force the "courtship" to move faster, but he was a patient mech when he knew that the outcome was in his favour. Even now, the aerospace commander was on his way to Soundwave's rooms and would most likely remain even after they had interfaced. Up until this point they'd merely synched their energy fields, pleasurable in its own right, but it wouldn't be too much longer before the telepath was able to convince his conquest to spark-share – the most intimate form of interfacing amongst their kind and the one where _no_ secrets were kept between lovers.

He knew that once Starscream "saw" the scope of power that the telepath possessed, it would be simple to talk him into a permanent bond and Soundwave would truly have everything that he desired.


	19. Disheveled MATURE

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** Once again, I got a little help from the TF anon kink meme. And again, I utterly fail at remaining anonymous XD

Anyways, I just couldn't resist trying something with that particular kink prompt and tie it into this particular meme prompt. They just seemed like they were made to go together! For those keeping track of the various 'verses existing within the 28, this story follows "Dominant" and "Well-Shagged" chronologically.

**Prompt:** Disheveled

* * *

For the most part, it was easy to ignore that the affair even existed. Megatron frankly didn't care _what _his second-and-third in command did in their downtime so long as they completed their assigned tasks, while the flyers were convinced that the telepath was willing to put up with that weird little 'dominate me' kink of Starscream's (honestly, a seeker that _didn't_ want to be in complete control during interfacing?! The idea was startling and just a little weird even to his trine mates). Add in that the pair was very discreet all things considered – thank Primus below for soundproof sleeping quarters! – and there was little chance that anyone who didn't _already_ suspect would figure them out.

Or that would have been the case if Soundwave didn't have an odd kink of his own that had thus far proven rather mild in comparison.

The battle had been going about like normal where the factions were concerned: the Decepticons weren't willing to abandon what energon they'd managed to gather prior to the Autobots showing up to wreck their plans as usual, while the Autobots were just as unwilling to let the Decepticons make off with their fairly-stolen goods. At the moment, they were at the _'keep shooting until we hit something/someone'_ stage, soon to slip into the _'Prime versus Megatron so everyone else can just screw around for a while'_ stage followed quickly by the _'holy Primus we're getting our afts handed to us, grab the energon and run'_ stage.

Soundwave, as had become habit here of late, kept a few sensors locked on his seeker even while engaged in not-so-friendly fire against a couple of the Autobot frontliners. The weather had been horrific up until an hour or so ago, the rain ceasing to only to leave the ground a mess of wet concrete and soaked grass with more than a few patches of mud and sludge scattered randomly throughout. There were definitely going to be complaints when they finally returned to base with or without the energon, and most likely long lines for the wash racks... which should give the telepath enough time to drag Starscream off for a quick interface before cleaning up.

He wasn't quite sure why, but something about the tricoloured seeker being in less-than-pristine condition – scuffed from a dogfight with the Aerialbots, singed but not damaged by laser fire, even just sporting a thin layer of grime after a patrol flight – _really_ revved Soundwave's engines. It was all he could do to _not_ just jump Starscream whenever he was in such condition, and only eons of self-control in other aspects of his life made it possible to wait until he could haul his lover to a private location away from the rest of the army to 'face him senseless.

A startled yelp followed by a ground-shaking crash drew his attention away from the gunfight (really, no one was making an effort; if the 'bot twins _had_ been trying they would have hit him long before now – the yellow one wasn't even looking where he was aiming, for sparks' sake!) and off to his right. Apparently one of the Aerials – if didn't matter which one, Starscream was sure to be torqued to the Pit and back whichever one it was – had gotten in a lucky shot and managed to drive the air commander from the sky. The crash landing would be enough to jar the seeker's systems for at least a minute or two, but given the makeup of Cybertronian frames the worst damage Starscream would wind up with was a twisted aileron or two and maybe a cracked thruster.

However, that fact wasn't what now had Soundwave's focus away from the rather pathetic excuse for a battle and firmly locked onto the seeker.

No, what had drawn the whole of the telepath's attention was the fact that the pride of the Decepticon air fleet had crashed almost directly into what was probably the worst of the mud and sludge from the previous rain. Although he'd pulled himself up into a seated position, looking a bit dazed from the crash, the normally-pristine frame had still become streaked brown and grey-brown. The only visible, normal colours were dingy white and a bit of red from his chestplate; any traces of blue were completely hidden by the mud.

And to be honest, Soundwave had never wanted to jump the seeker quite as much as he did _right now_.

Starscream shook his head slightly, slowly regaining his bearings and trying to compute what had just happened. One minute he'd been chasing down Air Raid – probably not his brightest move ever –the next he was on the ground with a damaged aileron and seated in a patch of sludge. Getting airborne again wouldn't be much of an issue, except he wasn't sure if transforming would be the wisest course of action given how much of the filth was already getting into transformation seams; as it now stood, he was likely to try and coax his lover into helping him get cleaned up.

Speaking of that particular mech, Starscream blinked away his last little bit of confusion just in time to spot Soundwave headed his way. In the three months that they'd been carrying on their affair, the seeker had learned to read subtle clues in the other's body language to figure out his moods and what the chances of being jumped were. He had only had enough time to realize that Soundwave didn't particularly _care_ that there was still a battle going on around them before he found himself knocked to the ground once again.

The telepath didn't give his seeker a chance to point out the obvious, retracting his mask and capturing his mouth in a harsh kiss even while searching for the latches to Starscream's interface panel. The thought that the air commander was going to shoot him for this crossed his processor briefly only to be pushed aside by the more insistent urge to connect _now_. It wasn't easy to manipulate the catches, his fingers slipping over them at least thrice before he managed to snap them open, but he finally pried the panel open and stowed it into his subspace for safekeeping. Soundwave broke the kiss and bit hard into one of Starscream's neck cables, grinning at the cry the action elicited and opening his own interface panel.

"Soundwave, this is hardly the _time_," the seeker squeaked, voice raising a couple octaves on the last word as the telepath snapped a cord into one of his ports. Starscream dug his fingers into the larger mech's shoulders, absently noting that the few Autobots who'd been close by and at least one of his flyers had stopped to see what the Pit was happening before another quick snap of electricity let him know that another cable had just been snapped into place. The seeker quickly decided that he didn't care; if Soundwave was all revved up because of a little bit of mud and wanted to go alpha-mech on him, who the slag was _he_ to argue?

Sensing the abrupt change in his lover's mood, Soundwave growled low in his vocalizer and snapped the third cable into place. "Objections: irrelevant," he snarled, sending a hard pulse of electricity through their connection and receiving a sharp scream in response. The sound only encouraged him, and the telepath gave Starscream's neck cables another harsh bite as he increased the energy flow. The seeker squirmed and yowled beneath him, one leg wrapping around Soundwave's hip and fingers digging through the other's shoulder plating.

Knowing that he wasn't going to last very long – his lover was gorgeous in the throes of passion any time, the added allure of the grime covering his frame made it that much more intoxicating – Soundwave pressed a hard, quick kiss to the other's mouth. "Mine," he hissed, lifting his head slightly to glare through his visor at the mechs who had stopped what they were doing to watch, stating his claim clearly just in case any of them got any brilliant ideas. Soundwave was neither blind nor stupid, he knew that those slagging Autobot twins seemed to have a thing for seekers, and there was _no way_ either of them was getting _near_ his Starscream.

"Yours," the seeker gasped out in agreement, optics flickering wildly as warnings began flashing over his HUD. The telepath fairly purred at the confirmation, sending a series of quick pulses across their connectors. That was all that Starscream needed, doing his designation justice as his overload swept over him, the resulting energy pulse surging back through the interface connectors and dragging Soundwave over the edge with him. The telepath barely kept from collapsing on top of the slighter seeker, both cycling air rapidly through their intakes in an effort to cool their frames.

Soundwave lifted his head again and growled, possessive anger apparent without his mask in place to hide the expression. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker took this as their cue to quickly retreat to the other side of the battlefield while the two Aerialbots who'd landed out of curiosity took to the sky once again. Skywarp, on the other hand, simply snorted at the show of ownership and teleported back to where the rest of the seekers had landed when they realized their wingleader hadn't returned to battle after his impromptu landing.

Not much further away, Megatron was struggling between being torqued off and embarrassed. He had honestly thought Soundwave had at least a little self-control; apparently that was a mistaken assumption unless it was another cobalt telepath that had just jumped and 'faced Starscream in the middle of a slagging _battle_. "You don't seem terribly phased by any of this, Prime," he groused to the Autobot who was standing a few feet away from him.

Optimus simply gazed back. "Believe me, after walking in on Jazz and Mirage for the tenth time, you stop being surprised by when and where soldiers will interface."

* * *

**End Note:** I just couldn't resist throwing in a reference to another of my favourite am-I-the-only-one-who-likes-this-pairing couples, Jazz/Mirage. And for the record? Yes, Optimus _does_ mean walking in on Jazz apparently by himself but Mirage's "vocalizing" indicating that he's there as well. Sounds and Screamer aren't the only kinky mechs running around in my head space!


	20. Daring

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This part is set in the same AU established in "Playing with Kids" and "Exploring," occurring sometime during their youngling stage of growth. ninetails666 (madwriter223 on LJ) has also written a _lot_ for this 'verse, and I love her for it. I claim partial-inspiration on this part from one of her latest offerings - those involving Skyfire, oddly enough - and started wondering that if Sky was considered Screamer's first friend outside the trine, where did Soundwave fall in their thoughts?

And this was born.

**Prompt:** Daring

* * *

He'd known it was risky from the start; his creator had never had any qualms about expressing his opinion of the seeker-builds, and if the mech knew his only offspring was willingly spending time around not one seeker but a complete (if still young) trine he would go nuclear. The firm anti-seeker sentiments often made Soundwave wonder _why_ his creator had agreed to be the Prime's ambassador to Vos, although the youngling suspected that it had more to do with the prestige that came with the position rather than the location.

Still, the cobalt youngling had become rather fond of the trine he'd met only a few short vorns ago. Although he hadn't been the one to make first contact, Thundercracker was definitely a trine leader in the making; Soundwave had lost count of just how many times the blue seekerling had attacked someone that he viewed as a threat to his younger trine mates, somehow managing to avoid punishment... most of the time. There were a few instances when a caretaker hadn't been amused by the antics and sent Thundercracker off to a quiet corner; the punishments generally failed to do any good since the other two – and on one occasion Soundwave as well – tended to join in as if it were simply another game.

And on the subject of games, Skywarp was the oddest mech Soundwave had ever met in his relatively short life. The purple and black seeker had an endless supply of energy, at one time exerted by jumping around the room for no reason whatsoever; not too long ago the youngest had taken it upon himself to build a teleporter for his trine mate and tested it successfully. Now rather than hop around the room... or the park... or wherever they happened to be, Skywarp 'ported around whenever he seemed to get too bored with what was going on around him.

Which left the youngest, the littlest, and the one who had struck up the friendship with Soundwave initially. Starscream was, to put it simply, a genius; his processor was probably the fastest of any Cybertronian, adult or sparkling, and the cobalt mech was rarely surprised to find his friend working on some new project even if he'd been in the middle of another just cycles before. He was also incredibly quiet, something that Soundwave appreciated given his natural telepathy – sometimes the silence was necessary in order to separate his own thoughts from those of others.

Granted, Soundwave didn't much _mind_ getting this thoughts tangled with the trines. All three were rather intertwined – Starscream's quiet contemplativeness, Skywarp's hyperactive nature, Thundercracker's steadfast protectiveness – tended to sooth the groundbound mech whenever his senses were fraying and he was close to striking out against those that were causing his aggravation. In those moments he sometimes wondered where their thought processes ended and his own began, and sometimes it troubled him.

His only real concern was that he had never heard even one of them refer to him as _friend_.

"You're lost again."

Soundwave dredged himself from his thoughts and looked over at Starscream. The tricoloured youngling was stretched out on his stomach, chin propped on his hands as he studied the other; Thundercracker was seated cross-legged next to the smaller seeker and frowning in a manner that bespoke concern. Skywarp had yet to join them, kept behind by his creator as he'd 'forgotten' to pick up his room the previous cycle and was instructed to do so before meeting up with his trine.

"Apologies," Soundwave replied, offering a faint smile to the other younglings. He had been wearing a mask for some time now – since his upgrade to the youngling frame, actually – yet he always retracted it when it was just himself and the seekerlings. They'd met him before it was present, and it felt _wrong_ to keep it on around them. "Trying to figure something out."

"Well?" Starscream prompted after a moment, reaching up and tapping the center of the cobalt youngling's visor as he often did when Soundwave took a moment too long to respond. "What's got your processor in a bind?"

The telepath frowned slightly for a moment, trying to decide how to voice his concerns, and then silently reached out for the trine's mental presence. The tripled thrum of their minds helped to calm him and focus his own thoughts. It was another click before he felt comfortable speaking, and by that point Skywarp had finally arrived and dropped down on the other side of Soundwave opposite the other seekerlings.

"Seekers: confusing at times," the youngling finally said, a hint of frustration entering his monotonous voice. "It is sometimes difficult to understand why you seek my company."

"Is _that_ all?" Thundercracker asked, looking relieved rather than incensed; Starscream was smiling with warm amusement while Skywarp snickered quietly. "That's a _really_ weird thing to be worried over, Wave."

"You're one of us, silly," Skywarp added, bumping Soundwave with his shoulder almost affectionately. "Why _wouldn't_ we want you around?"

"You might not be a seeker," Starscream added, sitting up just long enough to move closer to the telepath before sprawling over his lap, "but you're practically trine and we love you."

There was truth in the seekerling's words, and confirmation in the thoughts of all three. Soundwave was still confused over their meaning – it would be vorns later when he would understand that the seekers didn't call him _friend_ because they already thought of him as _mine/ours_ – but still warmed by their affection.

And more determined than ever to defy his creator; if it came down to choosing between _him_ and _them_, Soundwave knew without a doubt that he would choose his seekers every time.

* * *

**End Notes:** "Daring" here sort of has two meanings. First off is Soundwave gathering up the nerve to speak his concerns to the trine. Secondly is his determination to _not_ become his creator and defying that life. I admit to playing a little fast and loose with the prompt, but there you have it.


	21. Kick Ass

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** ...honestly, this could almost slip somewhere into the cannon. I'm not sure where, but it might be possible!

**Prompt:** Kick-Ass

* * *

If there was one lesson that any mech knew from the moment he onlined, it was that one should _never_ get between a seeker and his sparklings. Seeker programming was a delicate balance of military protocols, loyalties that ran back thousands upon thousands of vorns, and survival instincts – they were intensely loyal to their families first and foremost, and they were more than capable of causing critical damage to anything considered a threat to their kin.

And given that even the seekers within the Decepticon army lived by a strict code, any damages that didn't come about as a result of battle to _any_ seeker was the cue for every single one to attack en masse. The only reason that Megatron was still online was because the command trine alone had the right to decide his fate, and so long as Starscream could still pick himself up after a "meeting" they allowed him to function. Still, there were many in both factions who were convinced the lead trine was just waiting for Megatron to go too far.

What no one expected was the catalyst itself.

The Autobots had quietly arrived on the scene of yet another energy raid, watching as the Decepticons set about taking what they needed with their usual precision – even the most skeptical 'bot had to admit that the 'cons worked efficiently when given a task to accomplish. Megatron had just ordered one of the trines into the air and was turning to check on the progress of the Battlechargers when someone accidentally knocked over one of the Cassette twins. The small mech had fallen backward into a pile of energon cubes, shattering a good dozen before hitting the ground.

Megatron ignored the fact that a few glares had been turned onto Drag Strip for knocking Frenzy down in the first place, unleashing his ire on the Cassetticon for "wasting precious energon." In what would probably go down in history as one of the most astronomically stupid ideas ever, Frenzy snapped back that if _some_ mechs would watch where they put their gigantic feet then there wouldn't _be_ any wasted energon. Obviously, that did nothing to improve Megatron's mood, and in a fit of rage he charged his fusion cannon and took aim at the small spy.

Before any 'bot could comprehend the full situation Starscream lunged forward and tackled the Decepticon leader. He was quickly joined not by his trine mates – who had landed and were fussing over the red and black Cassette as if he were one of their own – but by a furious Soundwave. None of the 'cons seemed to know what to do in this situation, watching in shock as their second-and-third in command proceeded to tear into Megatron violently. The other seekers on the scene landed as well, weapons held on their fellow Decepticons and the Autobots they'd spotted from the sky, making it plain that anyone who attempted to go to Megatron's aid would regret it immediately.

The Decepticon leader managed to hold his own once he managed to get to his feet, but in the face of two vengeful warriors he quickly realized that he was fighting a losing battle. Whenever Starscream would pull back from a kick, Soundwave stepped forward to throw a punch. They moved in tandem, as if their movements were a choreographed dance that had been perfected long ago, never standing in the same spot and sliding out of one another's way like water rolling over metal. And frustratingly, they were managing between the two of them to avoid his own counterattacks.

The obvious choice would be to shoot them both, except then he would have to fight off the remainder of his command trine _and_ the other seeker trines as well. Realizing that he was out of options, Megatron dropped to the ground, arms lowered to indicate that he would neither attack nor defend himself. Most of the mechs present fully expected Starscream to take the opportunity to deactivate the former gladiator then and there, but he surprised them all by merely stepping forward and leaning down to hiss something in the other's audio receptors.

A look of shock painted itself across the warlord's face as the seeker stepped back, brushing against Soundwave briefly before walking to where his trine mates were still huddled around Frenzy. Starscream trilled something to the other two seekers before reaching down to pick up the Cassette, settling the small mech against his chassis as if the other were his own creation. The telepath gave a sharp nod once then turned to join the command trine and check to ensure his Cassette's status with his own optics.

And with that, it seemed both the raid and the show – so to speak – were over. The seekers powered down their weapons and set about gathering up what energon hadn't been lost, the groundbound 'cons hesitantly moved to assist (save for the Battlechargers, who were the only 'cons present that _hadn't_ been held at gunpoint and rather cheerfully struck up a conversation with the Rainmakers), and the Autobots merely watched to ensure that no further damages were caused to the region before the enemy retreated.

It would be quite some time later before Jazz would admit that he'd been able to catch what, exactly, Starscream had whispered to Megatron – _never threaten one of our sparklings again if you want to keep functioning_. And while no one knew if the seeker had merely claimed them as kin along with the telepath or if he'd carried their sparks himself, it was quickly decided amongst the inhabitants of the _Ark_ that it was safest to err on the side of caution where the Cassetticons were concerned from that point forward.

* * *

**End Note:** And I think this is the only fic I've done lately with no real dialogue O.o


	22. Transforming

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** Holy hells, I've let this one sit for a bit, huh? I finally got a bit of inspiration from a slightly different direction.

I've built so many new 'verses of my own during the course of this meme that I was shocked to get smacked - fairly hard - with an idea set in the Shattered Glass universe. It bit especially hard once I read the updated tf(dot)wiki entry for Soundwave. So this particular part of the meme is set in the SG universe, Earth-side. The Sephie mentioned very briefly is a TF-verse character from the Marvel Comics continuity SG-ified to be one of the good guys (there's no entry for her yet - she's mentioned in one of the club-only stories for the 'verse - but her G1 counterpart is Josephine "Circuit Breaker" Beller); "Your Song" © Elton John and Bernie Taupin, minor changes made to fit the story.

**Prompt:** Transforming

* * *

It was odd, honestly, how well the pair of them seemed to fit together.

Any mech with functional optics knew that Starscream had been something of a beauty even before crash-landing on this strange little organic world, and the reformat had only served to improve upon what his creator had gifted to him. The fact that a functional processor went along with the pretty face was intriguing to some, off-putting to others, and a challenge worth facing to one.

It was also quite apparent that Soundwave was, in spite of the hardships of war and life in general, incredibly upbeat and optimistic almost to a fault. He never met a mech (aside from Autobots, of course) that he didn't like, and when he wanted something he went after it with the same enthusiasm as he went about every other aspect of his life.

And at some point, he'd come to the conclusion that he wanted the scientifically-inclined SIC as his bondmate.

This had set off a whirl-wind of a courtship that included dozens of gifts, declarations of eternal devotion, and one memorable battle where Sideswipe's erstwhile 'bot sibling wound up missing a couple of limbs after targeting Starscream on the field. Sideswipe thought it was hilarious, Cliffjumper found it mildly disturbing, and Soundwave thought it was "no biggie." That was right about the time that Megatron "suggested" that romantic overtures be left off the battlefield (even if it did cripple the 'bots for a few days, he _really_ needed his second in command to stop hiding in his lab every time the head of ops left him flustered and confused).

After they hit dirt, however, the overtures took on a whole new dimension once Soundwave discovered just how many ways the dominant species performed their own courtship rituals. There had already been several complaints from Skywarp regarding their human allies "helping" the ops mech in his efforts, the loudest one coming after Sephie suggested a fireworks display that had ended with yet another Autobot losing limbs and Starscream shutting himself in his quarters every time Thundercracker brought it up afterward (the vividly-painted jet thought the whole situation was adorable and was silently supporting Soundwave's ever-more-elaborate efforts).

What wound up turning the tide in Soundwave's favour, however, was a bit of somewhat common ground. After the fireworks fiasco – although it had been pretty cool to beat the slag out of Sunstreaker a second time – the ops mech finally got the brilliant idea to just ask one of Starscream's trine brothers what sort of things might get the jet's attention (he'd originally tried to have Ravage keep an eye on him, but the white panther was far too bubbly and kept attracting attention to himself, leading to the scientist bodily tossing the Tape out of his lab and locking the doors tightly). Skywarp, who was getting fairly sick and tired of the whole ordeal, mentioned that his brother had developed a fondness for classical Earth music. He also mentioned that if Soundwave broke the jet's ember, the ops mech _would_ spend the rest of his function looking over his shoulder.

Soundwave took the threat in stride as always, and started doing a bit of digging for information. Sending Frenzy to check out Skywarp's intel worked out a lot better than his previous attempt, as the quiet Tape returned to him with a small list of the composers that the scientist seemed to prefer. The van wasn't too sure what to make of those Bach and Hayden guys, but the Beethoven was kind of neat (especially when he found out that there was a fragging _movie_ about the guy and he seemed almost like a rock star, something Soundwave could appreciate) and he could get why Starscream would listen to Chopin while working. And music was music, so he started looking around for more... modern sounds that the object of his affection might appreciate.

Most of the Decepticons were of the opinion that Starscream just finally got tired of turning the van down flat, although his trine brothers figured that Soundwave finally managed to hit on the right way to get the stubborn mech to pay attention to him; the fact of the matter was that Starscream had slowly been warming up to the ops mech's advances over the vorns that he'd been courting him (and it was definitely courting, albeit a uniquely-Soundwave manner of courtship) and was just waiting for one gesture that wouldn't leave him flustered and embarrassed afterward.

And Soundwave managed to hit on that when he stumbled over a ballad that expressed his feelings towards the pretty scientist perfectly and convinced the jet to let him in the lab long enough to play it.

The first words out of Starscream's mouth the moment the playback was finished were, "You're such a dork, Wave." While most mechs would consider that the ultimate rejection, Soundwave was smart enough to note the shortened variation of his designation and the amused fondness in the jet's tone. That musical overture was followed by several others, mostly ballads either played back in their original format or altered slightly to fit the scientist and sung back by the ops mech, all of which were met with Starscream's odd brand of approval in the form of affectionate teasing.

And over time, the sound of soft rock music could be heard drifting from the second in command's lab along with classical piano sonatas, and no one was truly surprised when the pair started to share living quarters (although Skywarp was still making it clear that Soundwave needed to tread carefully if he knew what was good for him). They did argue on occasion – no romance was perfect, to be honest, and their clashing personalities sometimes did just that – but the ops mech would always manage to get back on Starscream's good side with a well-timed serenade of what had somehow become "their song:"

_"So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do.  
You see, I've forgotten if they're teal or if they're blue.  
Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean  
Yours are the sweetest optics I've ever seen.  
And you can tell everybody this is your song.  
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done,  
I hope you don't mind,  
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words  
How wonderful life is while you're in the world."_

It almost always worked. And when it didn't... well, Sunstreaker was apparently a very slow learner and presenting the jet with a limb or two never failed to get a laugh.

* * *

**Final Notes:** Seriously, go check out SG Soundwave's bio page. For some reason in my head he sounds amazingly like Keanu Reeves in the _Bill and Ted_ movies (no lie, in the two-page comic "The Desert Heat" he actually uses the phrase "bogus journey." I about died!)


	23. Excited BORDERLINE MATURE

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** So, I saw _Revenge of the Fallen_ yesterday. And I realized that Soundwave's design made me think naughty, naughty thoughts. And then I realized that the naughty thoughts were regarding a certain F-22. So yeah, I wrote p-n-p tentacle porn.

You didn't read that wrong, I did say p-n-p rather than sticky. Granted, I may do a sticky variant on those naughty thoughts later, but for now....

**Prompt:** Excited

* * *

The little red planet was, admittedly, larger than that disgusting blue and green planet, but the communications expert still disliked touching its surface. That was the main reason Soundwave had opted to maintain his Cybertronian alt modes – both of them – and hack directly into the human's satellite in order to keep an optic on their doings. Losing a second Cassette in two years' time was annoying, but with hope they would discover a source of energy soon and commence harvesting.

He knew that his mate was quietly distraught over so many lost and dying hatchlings, especially as more than a few of them would have been theirs had they survived. That was the benefit of being a bonded pair in the Decepticon armada: all hatchlings were immediately placed in their care upon activation, and there were currently only two bonded pairs in this sector of space.

The satelliteformer simultaneously sent a status update to Megatron informing him of the current actions of the Autobots and a request to meet to Starscream. The one-time Lord Protector responded immediately, acknowledging the information and requesting the he be informed of any changes immediately; his mate answered a few moments later to confirm the request accompanied by a pulse of curiosity and affection over their bond.

Soundwave detached his probes from the human satellite (such backwards technology, even their strongest firewalls were pathetic against his skills) and backed away, moving a little closer to the red planet and waiting for his bonded to arrive. It wasn't very long before he spotted the Earth-mode alt form of the slightly younger mech winging away from the surface, and he sent out a hailing frequency to allow Starscream to get a pinpoint on his exact location.

While for the most part Soundwave was a mech of few words and expressed even fewer emotions, one thing he was never loath to do was to shower his mate with attention both over their bond link and physically. Unfortunately, it had been many, _many_ long months since they'd had an opportunity to break away from their assigned tasks and the need for physical contact was nearly overwhelming. It was therefore unsurprising that Starscream had just barely shifted back into root mode when Soundwave lashed out with one of his tentacles and reeled his bonded in close.

It was a testament to just how touch-starved the pair of them were that the jet's only reaction was to slide open the coverings to the various ports covering his frame – an upgrade he'd gotten shortly after bonding with the older mech – and scrape his claws across the other's wings. Soundwave growled over their internal comm link and returned the favour, adding a sharp bite to his mate's neck while twining his other tentacle about the mech as well. Once he had Starscream 'trapped' fully, the various plugs integrated into his tentacle adaptations splintered free and jacked into his mate's exposed ports.

A rush of love/desire/need flashed to him across the bond even as Starscream purred appreciatively and began scratching light patterns into his lover's wings, the glyphs of his designation causing Soundwave to shudder slightly. He responded eagerly, transmitting desire/love/want over their sparkbond and pulses of energy through the physical connections. The vacuum of space swallowed the wail that his mate would have sounded, but the pleasure written across his faceplates was good enough for him. Soundwave nipped at the sensitive wires of his bonded's neck again and increased the energy feed, purring at the whimpers and pleas for more coming non-stop over the comm link. Sharp talons punched through the wing plating of both mechs as pleasure surged through the bondmates, driving them closer to overload.

Another growl was lost to space as the two mechs near-simultaneously revealed their spark chambers, Soundwave fully drawing Starscream to him and merging their life-forces together. The action completed the energy circuit between them, the electricity that the satelliteformer was feeding non-stop into his lover cycling back into his own systems and forcing them both into an overload that knocked them into a brief stasis.

No more than a breem passed before Soundwave felt his sensors come back online, plugs still connected to his mate and faint energy pulses cycling through the hard-line connection. Starscream wasn't fully back online yet, love/satiation/adoration pulsing lazily across their bond as he drifted between recharge and wakefulness. Soundwave chuckled warmly across the internal comm and nuzzled his mate tenderly, smiling to himself as the jetformer curled instinctively against him. Burying himself comfortably within their bond, the pair drifted amongst the stars until their responsibilities forced them to separate and return to their posts.


	24. Drinking Energon

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** I know, I know. I need to work harder at getting these done. The last handful, though, have hardly been able to inspire me. This one just randomly came to me and I had to get it down. All said and done, I'm rather content with it.

**Prompt:** Drinking Energon

* * *

"They're doing it again."

Megatron made a faintly questioning sound. It wasn't often that the Decepticons had something to celebrate, but a successful energon raid and a minor surplus gave reason enough for a party. And, as tended to happen whenever there was a party, the high-grade got around quickly.

There wasn't one mech in the room that could say he wasn't a bit overcharged, the warlord himself included. In Megatron's case, a little too much high-grade tended to leave him mellow and friendly, oddly content with the world and willing to reminisce about the way things were. Thundercracker, generally quiet and brooding, was one of those mechs who got incredibly silly, while his wingmate Skywarp's vocabulary improved by leaps and bounds.

The silver mech looked at Thundercracker, who had dissolved into giggles right after his observation, then turned his gaze in the direction the blue seeker had been looking. A faint smile quirked the corners of his mouth as he caught sight of his top two officers and realized that they'd overindulged a bit themselves.

Because there was no other way that the stoic Soundwave and the nigh-untouchable Starscream would ever deign to _cuddle in public_ unless there was high-grade somehow mixed into the equation and they didn't particularly care who saw them.

Starscream had abandoned his chair at some point in the evening, having decided that Soundwave's lap was more comfortable. Both the seeker's arms were looped around the telepath's shoulders, while the larger mech had one arm wrapped around his partner's back and a cube of the high-grade held in the other. Soundwave had retracted his mask several hours before, and continued to drink in between bouts of nuzzling and kissing the jet.

"You two do realize that these public displays of affection while inebriated only serve to decimate your reputations," Skywarp observed, wavering a bit in his seat but speaking clearly.

"Mmhmm," Starscream replied absently, obviously far too busy stealing kisses to care one way or another. Soundwave glanced at the black seeker for a moment with an expression that seemed to say _and your point is what, exactly?_ before taking another sip from the cube and turning to meet his lover's mouth.

It was right about then that Megatron realized that the two of them were still sharing the cube, in a manner of speaking. Shaking his head and chuckling in amusement, the cheerfully overcharged commander turned his attention to the rest of the room in hopes of catching some of the other soldiers enjoying their down time.

* * *

**End Note:** Drunken!Cons always win. Especially happy!Megs and silly!TC, who are the only canonically drunken representations. Wordy!Warp is something my roommate and I have discussed, finding the possibility of the prankster's vocabulary expanding when he's drunk.


	25. Reading

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Notes:** This part takes place in an AU-post TFA universe. Which means that yep, I finally figured out how the hell to get these two in the same damned place at the same damned time, since TFA never actually did that much for me. Bastards.

*coughs* Anyways, consider this to contain spoilers for "Human Error" and "Endgame," Maybe a couple for "Sound and Fury" just to be on the safe side. Also, I'm running fast and loose with the theme.

**Prompt:** Reading

* * *

It had seemed to be a stroke of luck at the time: one of Soundwave's drones had nearly been crushed by the falling frame of an offlined Cybertronian, and the Earth-born mech sent the command for more of his drones to go retrieve it. Chances were high that, thanks to the techno-organic's key giving him a spark and properties on par with full Cybertronians, he would be able to cannibalize the remains to finish rebuilding his own frame.

He recognized the mech from the memory files he'd stolen while attempting to reprogram the Autobots not so long ago – Megatron's one-time second, Starscream. He didn't know what had happened to put the mech in this state, nor did he really care; the important thing was to use what he could of the remains to repair himself and resume his attempts at creating sentient drones.

The latter was somewhat aggravating. When he'd originally come online, he'd been in possession of a single spark. Even after being nearly destroyed shortly thereafter, he'd only had a single deep blue spark (which, in a sense, put to rest rumours that _only_ Autobots had sparks in shades of blue; Soundwave was one hundred percent Decepticon to the core). Yet for some odd reason, he'd awoken from recharge one day when his self-repair was nearly half-finished to find a secondary white-gold spark settled comfortably next to his own.

His initial thought was that he'd managed to produce it on his own, and he had attempted to place it into one of the drones he controlled; the odd spark had not taken to the drone frame and settled itself more firmly into place beside his. And try though he might, Soundwave was unable to repeat whatever had happened and settled – temporarily – on having non-sentient drones.

In a way, it was good; the drones being non-sentient made the loss of most of the Sound Wave dronelings and Ratbat easier to deal with.

With the offlined mech's frame to use for spare parts, Soundwave's personal repairs went much faster this time around. The remaining Sound Wave drones and Laserbeak were careful in removing portions of the frame, and that was the only reason he'd even noticed that there was a secondary, somewhat slighter framework underneath.

Curious, Soundwave ordered his drones to only remove the outer framework and leave the underlying one untouched. Once that outer armour was reshaped and incorporated into his own frame, the Earth-born mech took the opportunity to study what was left of the ex-Decepticon. The framework was still obviously that of a mech, but a good two feet shorter – if he were upright, the seeker would still be taller than most of the Autobots save for maybe Ultra Magnus and that detestable Bulkhead – and a bit more streamlined. The slight build was likely _why_ the seeker had had the outer frame added; apparently in the Decepticon mindset _small_ meant _weak_ or _Autobot_, and no 'con would settle for that unless he had protectors to cover his back strut.

From what Soundwave had gathered from the processors he'd ravaged, Starscream had been sorely lacking in allies even amongst his – their? No, his – own kind.

It was only after finishing his observations of the offlined frame that he realized the second spark in his spark chamber wasn't being passive any longer. Rather, it was pulsing hard and fast, as if finally straining to leave and seek out a frame of its own rather than hitchhike in Soundwave's. The Earth-born mech ran through the data for the past several days, calculated the possible reasons for the second spark to become active, and decided that scientific and morbid curiosity might be the way to go in this situation.

There was really nothing remotely erotic about the process, although his borrowed memory files indicated that it could be: open both spark chambers and press them together. Almost immediately the white-gold spark detached from Soundwave's and slipped into the empty one before it as if it had simply been waiting for the blue mech to get with the program. Soundwave remained where he was just long enough to verify that the spark wasn't being rejected and pulled away when colour – magenta and deeper shades of gray – began to return to the previously-offline frame.

Starscream was, understandably, disoriented when he came fully back online. As a point of fact, despite the data that the Earth-born mech had gleaned from the Autobots' processors as proof that the seeker had been active up until whatever had been powering him gave out, the flyer had no recollection of anything past the instant Megatron had punched through his chest with the All-Spark Key. All he could remember was pain followed by darkness/warmth/safety right up until his spark – and it _was_ his, the seeker even confirmed that it had always been the same off-white-gold it was now – settled back into his frame.

His reaction to the information of just _where_ his spark had taken up temporary residence consisted of a disbelieving stare followed by oddly-pleasant laughter. "Just how my luck runs," he replied when the slightly-shorter mech inquired as to what was so amusing, followed by a promise to explain later once they figured out why his memory files were blocked as they were.

Soundwave drew himself away from the recollections and returned his attention to sifting carefully through his companion's memory files. He opted to use that word as Starscream was the only non-drone around, and the seeker didn't protest it. In fact, the seeker didn't protest much of anything, surprising considering what the van thought he knew about the jet. The Starscream of the 'borrowed' memories was egotistical and violent and didn't deign to let just anyone come close to him; the Starscream that Soundwave was coming to know was subdued and non-confrontational and had absolutely no qualms about letting the other mech jack into his systems to read the information that he was unable to access on his own.

Soundwave found it very easy to like this Starscream.

"Observation," he droned, continuing his thought only when the seeker made a faint sound of acknowledgment, "current activities: noted as potentially pleasurable according to Autobot memory files."

Starscream snorted and shrugged, careful not to dislodge Soundwave's datajack from the port at the base of his neck. "Autobots are so reserved they can find something perverted about _any_ basic activity," he retorted. "There's nothing even mildly erotic about filesharing. Morons, all of them," he added sub-voc.

The van bit back his amusement and went back to reading Starscream's files. Maybe he would find out just what activities _were_ pleasurable once the memory blockage was cleared out and what the seeker had meant by the comment regarding his luck.

And, with any more good luck, he'd also learn what the big deal about pressing spark chambers together was.

* * *

**End Note:** 25 down, 3 to go! And dear gods - yep, including Primus, Unicron, Buddha, Christ, Jupiter, Horus, and anyone else who wants to listen in - how did I manage to leave the most troublesome themes for last?!


	26. Silly

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Warnings:** Possible spoilers for "Sound and Fury," "Human Error," and "End Game" are in effect; it may be a good idea to read "Reading" first, as this is a sort-of sequel!

**Prompt:** Silly

* * *

Discovering that Megatron had finally followed through on all his threats to offline him had been enough to jar Starscream, even if he didn't actually _remember_ being offline. Realizing that his spark had somehow survived was likewise shocking, but what the jet was _still_ trying to fully process even now was the fact that his spark had quite literally taken up parasitic residence within another mech's chamber without damaging the other.

Starscream was an intellectual when push came to shove, in all honesty, so he was well-read in many scientific journals and more than a couple "religious" texts. He could only recall one journal that contained a case study of a Cybertronian surviving almost certain permanent deactivation in a similar manner to his circumstances, but with one glaring exception: that mech had only survived because he was spark-bonded, and his disembodied spark had sought out its mate to protect it until repairs could be made to his protoframe. Obviously, that hadn't been the case for the jet. In fact, he'd never even _heard_ of Soundwave until the moment he came back online and asked what was going on.

The only other possibility sounded too much like some of the more obscure stories he'd once gleaned from a text called the Covenant of Primus by one of the minor religious sects that believed Cybertronians were created by a higher being rather than the All Spark.

Honestly, the idea that there was a perfect match – a spark-mate, as it were – out there for every Cybertronian was a bit ludicrous.

Yet the fact remained that Starscream had suffered a fatal injury, his spark had sought safety with a complete stranger who had barely been online for one stellar year, and said stranger was more curious as to what had occurred than troubled or insulted at having been forced to share his spark chamber for a somewhat brief span of time.

As a holy mech had once told him back before he'd become as cynical as he was at times, "Primus works in mysterious ways."

There were only two ways to handle the situation; he could either deny that he'd been offline in the first place and accuse Soundwave of lying for some reason, or he could just accept that there was some force working in the universe beyond his control and make the most of his second chance.

It was an easy decision. After all, Starscream was tired of fighting – and according to his companion/friend/possible spark-mate, the Autobots had left Earth with the remnants of Megatron's forces as their prisoners – and he was curious to find out just _how_ his sparkless shell had done any of the things Soundwave recalled from the memory files "borrowed" from the Autobots. The Earthborn mech was somehow able to access and read the data that was locked away in Starscream's processor, just out of his own reach, and despite his somewhat monotonous manner of speaking Soundwave was good company.

Plus, Starscream was starting to like the idea of spending the rest of his function with the blue mech. Now all he had to do was figure out how to breach the subject. Maybe he could simply explain to Soundwave just how backwards the 'bots were when it came to pleasure, and offer to show him how good a spark merge was when both parties were aware of it.


	27. At the Beach

**Disclaimer:** Transformers © Hasbro

**Warnings:** AU, part of the Right of All universe

**Prompt:** At the Beach

* * *

Although Soundwave had been amongst the first to join the armada, he hadn't been there from the very start; that dubious honor belonged to only a few:

Blitzwing. Rumble. Frenzy. Onslaught. Starscream.

Those five, along with Lord Megatron, had been the original core. By the time Soundwave arrived, the search for a command staff had begun. He wasn't the only one of the newly-minted Decepticons to think that the Second, the Third, the Air Commander would come from the original five.

Instead, Starscream had adamantly refused the (at that time) joint positions of Second in Command and Air Commander. He had to actually be _bargained_ into taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer, and was happiest (for a given value of _happy_) when he was tending to the injuries of the troops or simply making sure their antivirus programs were fully updated.

No, the role of Third had been offered to Soundwave himself, along with Chief Intelligence Officer. He had accepted both positions, still a bit thrown that one of the remaining four hadn't been offered a spot on the command team... at least, until Rumble and Frenzy gleefully volunteered to be part of Soundwave's spy team and Onslaught was given command of a mercenary unit deemed the Combaticons. The position of Second in Command and Chief Science Officer went to Shockwave, who had learned that some of his ideals were a match for those Megatron was fighting for and offered his services in any way necessary.

Back then, in the early days, the structure of command had been confusing to the technopath. The mechs who made it up were too divergent, too different to actually work together... and yet somehow, Megatron's charisma and Shockwave's deductive reasoning and Soundwave's technopathy had meshed to create a strong core unit. The additional input that would eventually be added by Starscream's scientific and medical background and Skywarp's tactical know-how and Thundercracker's Elite Forces training would only make the Decepticons that much stronger.

Strong enough to know when a fight was futile, to know where to place a distraction while another smaller team handled the real objective.

Vorns later, on a world far from home, Soundwave knew that they were still able to perform such intricate operations even with Shockwave holding the Decepticon strongholds on Cybertron.

"I hate the beach," Ravage complained, glaring at the sand as if it was mortally offending him. "Sand gets into all of my gears."

"Observation: fact of nature on this world," Soundwave responded, mostly ignoring the complaints even while admitting that _he_ didn't much like the sensation either. "Further observation: distraction tactics working as previously planned."

"Still do not know why _I_ had to be here," the panther groused.

"Because you're a fragging ray of sunshine. Now shut up so I can concentrate on this weld."

Soundwave very nearly snorted at the comment, and was amused that Swindle actually _did_ snort. Starscream responded by whapping the Combaticon on the helm with his welding torch before going back to work on the mech's damaged hip join. To absolutely nobody's surprise, the CMO had joined the distraction force, mostly because it was a given that Megatron would go one-on-one with the Prime, and Starscream would never pass up the opportunity to inform him of his stupidity while fixing the damage as was his prerogative as head of the medical team. It was just another sign of the long-term friendship between the Decepticon commander and his chief medic that Megatron expected the treatment and kept from complaining too much during the repair process.

"Ouch," Swindle complained in spite of the fact that the seeker hadn't smacked him that hard. "And you're here, kitty cat, because otherwise Thundercracker would toss your aft into the brig if anything happens to his wingmate."

Soundwave didn't respond with any outward signs, but he mentally acknowledged that Swindle's words were Primus' honest truth. The only reason that neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp was hovering over Starscream's work was because the technopath and one of his agents were on guard. Otherwise the head of security or air commander (or both) would be covering the medic's back instead of working on keeping the Autobots' attention on the coastal power plant they were "raiding" and away from the small outcrop that Starscream had turned into a makeshift triage.

"Do I need to start welding mouths shut?" the seeker growled, lifting his optics only long enough to shoot a hard look at the Combaticon and Cassetticon before returning attention to his repairs. It would probably only be another half-breem before Swindle would be back in the fight, but Soundwave remained alert and in contact with the rest of his spy team; Rumble and Frenzy were with the crew at the actual target (a wind farm in the central United States) while Laserbeak kept an optic on the operations and Buzzsaw and Ratbat updated their chief on how the distraction was playing out.

It was hardly the first time that Soundwave had taken measures to ensure that the CMO was kept out of the line of fire, and he would never stop doing whatever it took to keep Starscream out of enemy hands.


End file.
